
CopyriglilN"_ 



rOFWK.HT DEPOSIT. 



/ 






NATURAL THEOLOGY 



AND 



GENESIS. 



Rev. J. E. Long. 



ITHACA, Mich. 
1905. 



GRATIOT COUNTY HERALD. 
Ithaca, Michigan. 



m\ 8 1905 

Class o^ XAc. no; 
copy 6. 



~S>Lisi 



[Entered according to Act of Congress.] 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. Preliminary statements. 

Chapter II. Did God use secondary causes in the events and 

times of creation. 
Chapter III. The creation of matter. 
Chapter IV. The earliest history of one world. 
Chapter V. The creation of light and darkness. 
Chapter VI. The creation of the atmosphere. 
Chapter VII. The creation of continents. 
Chapter VIII. The creation of vegetable life. 
Chapter IX. On variability and utility of species. 
Chapter X. The creation of sun light. 
Chapter XI. The nebular hypothesis. 
Chapter XII. The creation of animal life. 
Chapter XIII. The days of creation. 
Chapter XIV. The account of creation — a historic record. 
Chapter XV. The record of creation in its relations to other 

scriptures. 
Chapter XVI. The attributes of God as revealed in nature and 

revelation. 
Chapter XVII. The relation of the record of creation to our 

schools of learning. 



PREFACE. 



A natural theology treats of the existence and character 
of God as these may be known from reason and nature. A 
natural theology in its relations to Genesis accredits the form 
of the argument and the sequence of the thought to inspiration. 

We feel warranted in this contradictory form of title from 
the fact, that on a close analysis of the record of creation the 
argument proceeds in the steps followed by those who have dis- 
cussed the question in a natural theology, presenting their evi- 
dences from the ontological, the cosmological, the teleological, 
and the moral sources. If now we attempt to write an exposition 
on the record of creation we naturally fall into this line of argu- 
ment. And it is found on close analysis of the record of crea- 
tion, that God has already given us a work on natural theology. 

The last point is drawn out at great length in other parts 
of scripture, and we further note, that if we would formulate our 
theology faultlessly we must follow the Word of God. It is 
found also that when we have written our natural theology we 
have also written a satisfactory exposition on the record of crea- 
tion. 

In this theses on natural theology we endeavor to follow 
the sequence of thought as given by inspiration because of its 
comprehensiveness, and also for the purpose of bringing into re- 
view the relation that exists between the creations and the 
record of them given by inspiration. Endeavoring if possible to 
remove some difficulties that have been in the way of a cor- 
rect understanding of the theology as we think it. These 
hinderances have arisen in part at least from several errors as 
it seems to us, that have found their way into works on natural 



PREFACE, 



science, by the help of which the questions are to be solved, and 
the true relations that exist between nature and theology be 
pointed out, and either an exposition or a natural theology be 
written. 

One such error is found in the assumption that all matter, 
at first, existed as a class of nebulae, or fire mist, diffused in 
infinite space, out of which the worlds were supposed to have 
been made. (Denied by Heb. 11-3). 

Ajnother such error is the theory of evolution, by which 
this nebulae was supposed to have been turned into worlds and 
other forms of material things. 

Another such error is found in the separation of light from 
the wider theme of radiation, while in nature they are one, gov- 
erned by the same series of natural laws. 

Another such error is the assumption that molten rock 
material shrinks in cooling, while in fact, it expands, as does 
water when congealing into ice. The error has led into a theory 
concerning the appearance of dry land, or continental areas, by 
another agency than that thought in the creative record. 

Another such error is found in the assumption that sun 
light and heat are produced by the condensation of the rock 
material and other elements composing the sun, by the force of 
gravity, while most things show that the light and heat of the 
sun depend on its peculiar structure. 

Another such error is found in the peculiar stress laid on 
the law of variability, that governs, in part, all forms of animal 
and vegetable life. While the practical limits of that law is 
found in the increased utility of those things that vary. The 
law does not exist in theology, or mental and moral philsophy, 
chemistry or mathematics. 

Another such error is found in the stress laid upon the 
effects of environment to produce change in existing things. 
But no living thing has endured such change in environment 
as man, from plenty to want, from heat to cold, and from bon- 
dage to liberty, but he was still a man, no essential part lost or 
new faculty gained. 



PREFACE. 



If now we attempt to expound this record of creations in 
Genesis by the help of these natural sciences so written, which 
treat of the same themes. 

There appears to be an irreconcilable difiference. And be- 
cause of this difiference certain classes of men are calling this in- 
spired record a myth. The errors however are not in the 
words of God but in these imperfections found in scientific 
books, written from the wrong stand point, or written too has- 
tily. 

We feel assured, that when works on natural science are 
freed from all errors, then the harmony that will exist between 
them and the record of creations found in the first chapter of 
Genesis will be complete in all respects. 

We feel assured also that a true exposition of the account 
of creation must be written from the standpoint of creations. 
And so also a work on natural theology must be written from 
the same standpoint. 

Moreover, the natural sciences, being treaties on these sev- 
eral creations, to be true to nature, must also be written from 
the standpoint of creations, not from that of evolutions as some 
demand. 



PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Every artist has a place where he produces his varied 
works of genius; so the infinite God has a place where he 
wrought, set in orderly array, the products of his handy-work, 
of which place we may note three things. First, its expansive- 
ness. Take an imaginary line that will reach from the most 
distant star visible in the east to the most distant star visible in 
the west. With it begin to> measure this expanse from any given 
point. We cannot by repeating that line reach the confines, the 
boundary line. Start in the opposite direction and the same 
is true. Sink that line intO' the depths beneath our feet, and the 
same is true. Lift it above our heads and repeat its lengths for- 
ever. There is no boundary discoverable. The expanse cannot 
be measured by any line. It is infinite. Second, its primitive 
condition. There was in it neither sun, moon, or stars, to light 
and adorn it. In it there were none of the phenomena that 
accompany material things, as clouds, the flash of the aurora, 
attractions, and repulsions, winds, flying meteors, cometic mat- 
ter, fire-mist, chaos, or nebulae, of which some have supposed 
worlds were framed. There was not even one mote of dust to 
be found in infinite space. It was empty. Third, there was in 
infinite space none of the conditions that govern material things, 
as height, depth, length, breadth, latitude, or longitude, not one 
of the so-called laws of nature. Out of the infinite series of pos- 
sibilities, as to numbers and designs, that might be formed, 
not one had as yet been ordained, created, because matter over 
which these laws and conditions hold sway had not been called 
into being. The only existing things were spirit, infinity, 
eternity. 

These several suppositions, and affirmations are in harmony 
with God's word. Christ says, John 17, 5: ''He was with the 
Father before the world was." John says i, 3, speaking of the 
Word : "All things were made by him and without him was not 
any thing made that was made." There was a time when these 



8 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

existing worlds were not. The Apostle says, Heb. ii, 3 : "Things 
which are seen were not made of things which do appear.'' 
There were no other forms of matter older than these we see, 
out of which these elements and worlds were made. Genesis, 
I, I, says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the 
earth." This affirmation seems to imply that this creative act 
was the very beginning of material things. 

These several suppositions, and affirmations, are in keep- 
ing also with reason, which demands a competent designer for 
every thing that exists, because of the wisdom, plan, purpose, 
manifest in all material things. They were made, put together 
by a wise master builder, every least part of matter, or law, fits 
its appointed place perfectly. 

These several suppositions, and affimations are in keeping 
with the facts in nature. This field of infinite space was, and con- 
tinues to be God's work shop. 

The first sentence of revelation is the record of the first 
creation of material things that had an existence in it. After 
this there were the elements of defined space. There were 
heights and depts, lengths and breadths, latitude and longitude, 
metes and bounds, weights and measures, time and ternity, and 
laws that govern material things. After this "Beginning" of 
material things, one could construct a geography of the heavens, 
mark the boundaries of its vast areas, name the elements that 
coimpose its worlds, and investigate the laws that govern material 
things. The creative record tells how, and designates the re- 
lative times when God filled his place of abode with the things 
we discover to be in it. 

A natural theology has to do with all that is found in infinite 
space, for it shows that they exist by design and show forth the 
purposes of their author. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS, 9 

DID GOD USE SECONDARY CAUSES IN THE EVENTS 
AND TIMES OF CREATION.— FURTHER PRELIM- 
INARY STATEMENTS. 



CHAPTER II. 

Did God use tools in his work shop? Yes, all secondary 
causes are such tools, and are exceedingly numerous, embracing, 
no doubt, all the laws of nature, each as a secondary cause leav- 
ing its impress somewhere in the material universe. The 
waters of the earth are such a cause, which have as a mechanical 
force produced the greater part of the sedimentary rocks, river 
cannons, hills and valleys, and the glaciation of continents. A 
combination of such secondary causes produced the coal de- 
posits. Another series of causes gives the world its climates and 
its seasons. Another series directs the motions of the heavenly 
bodies. Another series determines the chemical affinities of 
matter. Another series is seen in the vital forces found in the 
world. Another is seen in the intellectual powers of man. 
Everywhere, indeed, secondary causes are at work changing the 
face of nature, and to some extent by environment, the charac- 
ter of some existing things. Indeed all the machinery of the 
heavens, and the earth, seem to be moved by secondary causes, 
the laws of nature. It is evident that God uses tools in his 
work shop, with which he constructs, and carries forward an in- 
calculable number of affairs. i 
Second. The things enumerated in the first chapter of Genesis 
were not the work of secondary causes. There are no secondary 
causes great enough or wise enough to produce any of them. 
They are so comprehensive, some of them so far reaching, so 
interlaced, at innumerable points, so diverse, yet framed to- 
gether with such perfect harmony, that God only, who is greater 
than all material things could have called them into being. They 
must be a series of creations. There is no other adequate way 
to explain the existence of the immeasurable wisdom manifest 
in their structure. Each is a new departure. He declares 
them to be creations. He afifirms them to be the production of 
things where nothing was. The first acts in utilizing the domains 
of infinite space. To emphasize the declaration that he created 



10 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

all the things there enumerated, he itemizes them, and affirms 
separate, and individual creation, no less than twenty-two times. 
In creations the record seems to teach, that God first designed, 
and then commanded each separate thing, with its laws, in obedi- 
ence to which it was to exist, to be, and immediately it appeared 
in the place appointed for it and began its round of duties per- 
fectly adapted to its place, whether it was a world, an element, 
a seed, or a living creature. Other portions of scripture affirm 
these same things. Psalm 33, 9 says : "He spake and it was done, 
he commanded and it stood fast." 33, 6 : — "By the word of the 
Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the 
breath of his mouth." Ps. 148, 5 : "Let them praise the name 
of the Jehovah, for he commanded, and they were created." 
It is either implied, or affirmed, that each separate thing enum- 
erated in the six days of creation was called into being by a 
command. The passage in Heb. 11 -3, contains the specifications 
that there was no form of matter in the infinitude of space, 
prior to the creations record in Gen. i-i, and that the creations 
then made were called into being by the word of God. God did 
not use tools, or agencies, or helps of any kind, in the act of 
creating. His command was sufficient. 

THE TOOLS OF THE WORKSHOP. 

Third. Quite an extended series of scripture texts, ol very 
great interest, in their bearing on this question of creations is 
found in the records of the miracles of the Bible, both of the 
Old and the New Testament. These miracles, consist largely 
in manifestations above the power of natural laws, as, turning 
water into wine, increasing the few loaves and fishes to feed 
thousands, raising the dead, restoring the withered arm, increas- 
ing the widow's oil, causing the ax to swim, dividing the waters 
of the Red Sea, and the Jordan, the plagues upon Egypt, feeding 
the millions of Israel on mana provided daily for forty years, 
smiting the rock in the desert for water, they were wrought by 
commands or their equivalents, and the results followed "im- 
mediately," or without delay. And in these respects they serve 
to illustrate the greater miracles of the creative davs of Genesis. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 11 



THE CREATION OE MATTER. 



CHAPTER HI. 

*'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." 
Gen. i-i. 

The apostle teaches, that this creation was real, and that 
before it infinite space was empty. Heb. 11-3. Other scriptures 
affirm that space has been filled with material forms, and their 
laws by the separate, and distinct commands of God. Gen. i, 
1-3-6-9-11-14-16-20-24-26; Ps. 33, 6-9; 148, 5; 2 Pet. 3, 5. And 
the Bible as a whole, assumes the doctrine of creation to be 
true, and thus sustains the affirmation of this first sentence of 
revelation. (See Cruden's concordence, create). This first 
verse affirms the creation of the elements of matter, and their 
orderly arrangement in systems of worlds, 'The heavens and the 
earth." These premises suggest this question. Do the ele- 
ments of matter, by their several constitutions prove necessary 
creations? We infer they do because of the orderly arrange- 
ment that is everywhere apparent in the material universe, and 
thus show that intelligence is older than matter. 

This orderly arrangement of these elements appears, in the 
fact that each element is so made as to possess a constitution, 
distinct, and separate from all the others, as to density, hardness, 
specific gravity, chemical affinity, elasticity, compressibility, duc- 
tility, fusion point, freezing point, etc. Thus each element is 
governed by special and peculiar laws, which belong to it alone. 
This orderly constitution argues design, plan, purpose that ex- 
isted in the mind of their author before they came into being, 
and one element was made by creation to differ from another. 
The difiference cannot well be acounted for otherwise than as 
the choice oi an intelligent and wise author. 

The orderly arrangement of these elements of matter, ap- 
pears from the tenacity with which each element maintains its 
individual identity. It has never been shown that one of these 
elements can be transmuted into another, or into some new 
form of matter, which proves the truth of the apostle's statement 
when he says : "Things which are seen were not made of things 
which do appear." And at the same time controverts the specu- 
lation that these elements and their laws were evolved by some 



12 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

occult process, out of other forms of matter and their laws. If 
these elements that now exist, ever had any tendency toward 
transmutation nature has made no record of it in the oldest 
mineral compounds found in the crust of the earth. The orderly 
arrangement of these element composing the world appears in 
the intense and selected affinities that exist among them, which 
is by certain fixed and unchanging proportions that form them 
into a vast series of compounds, as shown by the sciences of 
mineralogy, geology and chemistry. It is evident that this affin- 
ity was prearranged and then the plan was wrought into the 
elements. God's mind must have placed them and then God's 
hand must have made them. 

This necessity of creation is intensified, when we note the 
minutiae that is wrought into the plan of each element, 
when it was called into being. The combinations are all by cer- 
tain fixed proportions of atoms, which though the very least 
parts of elemental things, are yet taken up by weight in the 
combinations that are being made. All the water of the world 
has been produced in obedience to one formula H2O. All the 
salt of the world by another formula of atoms Na,Cl. Each 
form of vegetable tissue is built of selected atoms, and by a 
given formula. One formula produces a narcotic, another strych- 
nin, another starch, sugar, oil, vegetable fiber, perfume, pigment, 
or wood. All these limitations go to show that these ele- 
ments were so planed, and then constructed, by the author of 
their being, so as to fill the places they now occupy in the 
economy of nature. Even the weight of their several atoms, and 
the number and character of the combinations, they may make, 
were all predetermined. These things show the completeness of 
the design, and prove the necessity of their creation, by the one 
who established all the possibilities of the several elements of 
matter composing the world. 

Fourth. The orderly arrangement of these elements ap- 
pears in their utility, whether we consider them singly, or in 
their combinations. They conspire to add value to the world 
as shown by its subsequent history. Their value is, in every 
sense, cumulative. Each new compound serves some good end, 
in the economy of the world. Each new use of an element gives 
a new power, and adds a new value to existing things. Perhaps 
it is also true that thorwing an element out of use makes the 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 13 

world a per cent, poorer. The combinations of these elements 
make all of the rocks and minerals of the world. They form 
the basis for all the arts, and sciences, trades, and occupations 
of men. The evidence of design in the structure of matter is 
so strong that it cannot be denied, and yet this evidence is in- 
tensified, when we consider that these elements of matter ante- 
date, in their birth, the six days of creation, which bring out in 
relief the plan, and purpose, that was embodied in their compli- 
cated structure. Such far reaching designs, compel the belief 
that these elements of matter were called into being for the 
end we now see them fulfilling. While the wisdom and power, 
manifest in their being, point irresistably to the Infinite and 
Eternal God as their author. God only alwise could be their ar- 
chitect, and alpowerful could be their builder and maker. He 
must have selected, and numbered these elements, and measured 
the quantity of each, and ordained the laws of their being, that 
determined their relations to each other, and to forms of being 
that were yet to be created. 

Fifth. The orderly arrangement of these elements ap- 
pears in the fact that each element of matter has a field of 
utility and of combinations wholly to itself, as the sulphides, the 
chlorides, the oxydes, the carbonates, the silicates. Each min- 
eral or gaseous element makes its own series of useful com- 
pounds, with other elements. Some of these compounds are 
pigments of color for the artist or dyer. Some are 
noted for their medicinal qualities. Some are solvents as sul- 
phuric or nitric aoid. Some are foods for man and beast, as 
grains, grasses, and fruits. Some are poisons. Some quench 
thirst. Some are sources of power that move machinery. In 
all of these combinations there is apparently no evidence of a 
struggle for existence, and of the survival of the fitest. The field 
for each is so large that there is no crowding or strife. The 
laws for each element and its compounds were selected in incom- 
parable wisdom, and gifted with irresistable power over the 
things they were to rule. This selection was made in the begin- 
ning, for the compounds of all the elements that exist in the 
foundations of the world, may apparently be now made in the 
laboratory of the chemist. All of the elements and all of the 
laws of each have survived from the beginning to the present 
day. 



14 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 



THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF ONE WORLD. 



CHAPTER IV. 

"And the earth was without form, and empty, and darkness 
was upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters." Gen. i, 2. 

This brief chapter of history, for such we assume it to be, 
stands alone in the records of the world. And since it makes 
a part of the creative record, we should infer it to be as impor- 
tant in the mind of its author as the other portions of the more 
extended history of the events of the creative week. This im- 
portance is enhanced when we note that it treats of things en- 
tirely distinct from all else in the first chapter of Genesis. It 
was doubtless designed to be in antithesis with the works of 
the creative days. For it says that the earth was now empty, 
dark, formless, covered with waters and without living creatures. 
Its only inhabitant the Spirit of God. As the creations of the 
days advanced it was lighted, beautified with floating clouds, 
lands and seas, that were filled with life. And the heavens were 
made bright with stars and sunshine. The contrasted thoughts 
are very emphatic. There are in this brief account ol the earth 
no less than six distinct affirmations concerning the condition of 
the world during that period of its history. Five of these points 
have always been open to investigation by the students of 
nature. And they can today, perhaps, more readily than at any 
previous period of man's occupancy of the world, be carefully 
examined as to their truth. They have been spread out before 
the world as if to challenge investigation. These aiflrmations 
are as follows : 

1. The earth was a world of matter of known elements. It 
was not a chaos, or in a diffused and nebulous state. 

2. It was an empty world. No form of life was found in 
it. Jer. 4, 23-26. 

3. It was in darkness. 

4. It was a formless world. Without land, hill, valley, sea, 
lake, river, atmosphere or clouds. 

5. It was covered with waters. 

6. The Spirit of God was alone in the world its only in- 
habitant. Let us review these points in their order — 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 15 

1. When this chapter of history opens, the elements of 
matter composing this earth had already ceased to exist in their 
simple form. Hydrogen and oxygen had formed a chemical 
union, and the resulting waters covered the earth. Other ele- 
ments had combined and made the rocks for the floor of that 
universal ocean, and made the material for the molten interior 
of the world. For if the oxygen that is estimated to form about 
one-half of the world had at this time already united with the 
hydrogen and made one of the chief elemental compounds of the 
world, it had by parity of reasoning also combined with other 
elements as silicon, and potassium, and aluminum, that make the 
granite foundation of the earth's crust, and also the floor of this 
ocean that then covered the world, according to this inspired 
account. At the time referred to by this second verse of Gene- 
sis the earth was not in any part of it a chaos of elements, as 
some suppose, but a systematic series ol compounds as complete 
as those found in the laboratory of the chemist. This one 
verse is God's chosen way of telling us that the earth was, from 
"the beginning," composed of the elements now found in it. 
And demonstrating before us that these elements by virtue of 
their specific gravities, their chemical affinities, and their inde- 
structability, could exist only as a world mass. The purpose 
of God is indicated by the compounding, not by the diffusion 
of these elements of matter. 

2. This historic record says, the earth was an empty world. 
It had no living thing in it. It was like a house unused. The 
question immediately comes up. Is this true? Can we find in 
the earth the clear record of such a time? There is no scientific 
truth more thoroughly established than this, that the earth at 
a certain period of its existence was empty. There was no 
form or species of living thing, plant or animal upon it, or in its 
waters. It is also equally well established, that that period of 
emptiness was in the earlier period of the earth's existence, and 
therefore in that respect coincides with this historic record 
which speaks of the earth as it was next after its creation, and 
as it was just before the beginning of the six days of creation. 
This coincidence gives presumable evidence at least that the in- 
spired record, and this geologic period of earth age do actually 
refer to the same period of time. As illustrating this historic 
coincidence we may note that the science of geology was not 



16 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

studied", and written in order to expound scripture, but to some 
extent with a spirit of antagonism to it, and therefore its testi- 
mony is the more valuable, if in the end it confirms the historic 
truthfulness of the inspired record. The science of geology is 
modern in its origin, and though young in years it seems, in 
the main, to be established on a sure foundation of truth, for 
it has been studied, with care, in many lands for a century, or 
more, and its principles and philosophy as a science carefully 
arranged by the most learned of men in that department of 
literary work. While many of the investigations that have ex- 
tended our knowledge of the science have been carried on by 
states, and nations at great expense, and by every assistance 
obtainable for the purpose of learning the character, value and 
location of the mineral wealth hid in the earth. Also learned 
men have for the sake of the science itself by a slow and per- 
sistent process of investigation examined the superposition of 
the various stratified rocks in many parts of the world, collecting 
the fossils of plants and animals found in the successive deposits, 
and thus have noted the progressive history of the world, from 
the most ancient sedimentary rocks up through all their forma- 
tions to the modern sands of our brooks and rivers. To help 
themselves in this study they have given names to the various 
series of rocks discovered from the last of the tertiary to the 
oldest of the silurean. These most ancient fossiliferous 
rocks by whatever name they may be called, whereever 
discovered in any part of the world are found to rest 
upon azoic rocks. Now when these azoic rocks were formed 
the world was empty, void of any kind of life. Investigations 
in every part of the world bring the same testimony. There was 
a time when the whole earth was empty. It was "vohu." This 
is God's declaration concerning it. He says, 'The earth was 
void, empty, Vohu.' " This declaration that God made con- 
cerning it was not mythical but true history. To give emphasis 
to this inspired declaration we may note, that this azoic rock 
appears at the surface over a large part of the earth. It is 
therefore before the eyes of the whole world bearing testimony 
to the truth of this scripture record, which becomes one of the 
most wonderful declarations in (revealed history) because made 
so many ages before men by investigations had discovered that 
the earth had in its earlier history an azoic age. It is not prob- 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 17 

able that this truth was known at any time previous to this in 
the world. If so, other points in the science of geology would 
also have been known and some of them, at least, would have 
found their way into the ancient literature of the world and been 
preserved. Nothing of the kind appears however. The writer of 
this historic and scientific statement must therefore have been 
inspired of God to record events known only to God. Tlie 
world of mankind have waited thousands of years before investi- 
gations in the science of geology had made clear that this declar- 
ation was true, both as science, and also as history. This scrip- 
ture is the instrument of bringing out in relief one of the won- 
ders of inspiration. When this sentence was written man could 
not have composed it. It stands therefore as an illustration of 
a revelation from God, which was not understood even by those 
to whom it first came as a revelation from God. If the author 
of Genesis understood the full scientific import of the record of 
creation, he has left us no intimation of it. And even now 
some of the most learned of men, are calling the whole chapter 
of Genesis in which this second verse is found a myth. This 
verse of scripture calls attention to another fact, the verbal in- 
spiration of the Word of God. When it was written God only 
could select the words that would tell us the truth, the whole 
truth, and nothing but the truth. Because the subject matter is 
such that God only, who knew all the events, could declare 
them. 

3. This history affirms that this world was at that time in 
darkness. ''Darkness was upon the face of the deep," and the 
deep covered the whole earth for the dry land had not yet been 
made to appear. The context shows us that the reason for this 
darkness was that the light had not yet been created. 

4. This history of the world affirms that the earth was at 
first formless, and by a reference to Jer. 4, 23-26, where the same 
word is used, we learn that this formless state signified, without 
land, hill, valley, sea, lake or river, and by a reference to Gen. 
I, 6-7, perhaps also without an atmosphere and clouds, for they 
also give form to the world, and are as much a part of the 
earth as the land and the sea. Which the creations of the second 
and especially of the third day removed by the appearance of 
land, and of sky views. 



18 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

5. This inspired history of the early part of this world's 
existence affirms that during this period the earth was covered 
with waters. And causing the dry land to appear on the third 
day tells us how this flood of waters was removed. 

6. Lastly the inspired record says : The Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters. God had not forsaken the 
formless, empty, dark, ocean-swept world. He is every where 
watching over his affairs. 

These six points of world history that God has been pleased 
to give us are each of incalculable magnitude. It is to be noted 
however, that there is among them no intimation of creations. 
Nor are they evolutions. They are an enumeration of physical 
conditions with one exception, the Spirit brodding, and that is 
a declaration of Divine care and supervision. The other five 
points give us in brief the physical geography of the world, at 
that time, and though brief they comprehend everything. The 
whole physical state of that one world is given to us in the 
fewest words possible. As an important historic record it stands 
in its proper chronological place, between the account of the 
origin of material things and the events of the creative week, 
which treats of the events by which this and also other worlds 
were prepared for more extended usefulness, and how some of 
them were employed. The earth is clothed with vegetation and 
filled with living creatures. And the sun, moon and stars, are 
made light bearers, and mark the times and seasons. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 19 



THE CREATIONS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS. 



CHAPTER V. 

And God said, ''Let there be light" — and God divided the 
light from the darkness. And God called the light, day, and the 
darkness he called night. Gen. i, 2-5. 

Can these creations be now selected from the midst of 
existing things, and their boundary Hnes be pointed out First 
light is a small part found in the midst of an existing order of 
things called "Radiation." Light is that part of radiations per- 
ceived by the eye, and which when separated from other radia- 
tions by a prism forms what is called the solar spectrum, which 
is composed of a series of colored rays from red to violet, and 
which when combined forms white light. Below the red in the 
spectrum are dark rays, and beyond the violet on the other hand 
there is a series of dark rays. The boundary line between light 
and dark is at these two points. Among these factors of radi- 
ation, light is the most apparent, and first known, and evidently 
the part stands for the whole. For all these rays belong to one 
order of existing things, and when God said, "Let there be light" 
it was the command which of necessity called into being all the 
laws of radiation, for the light and the darkness are represented 
as co-ordinate creations, though they are separated by unchang- 
ing laws. 

2. We may note the magnitude of this creation. It was for 
all space. We can easily go where light is not, but we cannot 
go where its laws and with it the laws of radiation are not. 
While the speed of its motion would indicate that it was not 
made for this world alone, but also for infinite space as well, for 
it moves 187,000 miles a second and is adapted to be the servant 
of worlds. And though it comes to us from the depths of space 
so great that thousands of light years have elapsed since it started 
on its journey, yet knows the laws of light that exist about this 
earth when it arrives. Therefore it is apparent that all the laws 
of light are the same, both in that far oflf domain, and here in our 
own home circle, the solar system. And they were the same in 
that far away time they are now. The laws of light and darkness 
were evidently not for this earth alone but for all worlds. 



20 NATURAL THEOLOGY AXD GEXESIS. 

When God said, '"Let there be Hght." and at his command 
it came to this earth, the way was at that same moment pre- 
pared for Hght to come and minister to all worlds. And that 
which is said about the existence and motion and magnitude of 
the light rays is true also of the dark rays, for they apparently 
move through space by one law and one impulse. 

By a second act of creation, the inspired record says : 
''God divided the light from the darkness." This boundary 
line between the light, and the darkness is clearly defined and 
well known. For practical purposes the eye serves to define it. 
The rays we see are in the field of light, and designate its limits. 
There are other rays interspersed with these that are seen which 
exist at every possible temperature that cannot be perceived by 
the nerv^e of vision. The question may be illustrated in this w^ay. 
Let a thread or ray of light fall into a darkened room, pass this 
ray of light through a prism. It will be divided into a spectrum. 
A part of the rays found in that ray of sun light will be refracted 
to a place in the spectrum below^ the red and be invisible. A part 
will be in the spectrum and be visible. A part will be found be- 
yond the violet of the spectrum, and be invisible. The experi- 
ment shows the boundar}^ lines that divides the light from the 
darkness. To determine the number of the radiations that 
should be the instruments of vision was a Divine prerogative. 
He evidently made the selection, and divided the one series from 
the other. So important was this selection that it is spoken of 
as an act of creation. "God divided the light from the darkness." 
And in evidence that this division, between the hght, and the 
darkness of the first day's creation, is the true one, we cite the 
fact that the eyes of all creatures made on the subsequent days 
of creation were constructed to see by these same radiations, 
bounded by the solar spectrum. And practically all the forms of 
vegetation subsequently created were made susceptible to the 
influence of these same radiations. And without them all forms 
of life make defective growth or perish altogether. 

Third. Let us now gather some of the proofs that Hght with 
its laws must have been a creation, (a), God says it was a cre- 
ation, (b), The days of the creative record are along natural 
fines. And since the things enumerated in the six days do, 
added to the creations of "the beginning," by a comprehensive 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 21 

interpretation embrace all that the eye of man can see or his 
reason show to have existed or now exist in the material uni- 
verse, cognisant to us, and since this first day enumerates one 
factor, and a very important one too, of the all things, therefore 
this factor of radiation with its laws, must of necessity be a crea- 
tion also, (c), That radiation is one among the several distinct 
creative acts that have been performed by the hand, or the will, 
of the Infinite God appears from the fact that its laws are dis- 
tinct and separate from the laws of all other existing things. 
Both of things that precede and also succeed it in the creative 
record. The laws of chemistry, astronomy, electricty, meter- 
ology, geology, botany, zoology, and solar physics are all sever- 
ally as complete in themselves as are the laws of radiation in it- 
self. And each is distinct and different from all the others, and 
from the laws of radiation. These different orders of things must 
of necessity have been separate and distinct creations for each 
is the beginning of a new order of things. Aud each is so es- 
sentially different from all the others that one could not be 
descended from another by any known law of generation, (d), 
The relative place of radiation or light, among the creative days 
emphasises the importance of its creation, and to that extend of 
emphasis, intensifies the necessity of its creation. And that 
the point of place and order in the record is well taken appears 
from the fact that each subsequent creation as enumerated is at 
some essential point dependent upon or affected materially and 
essentially by this, and thus they unite to prove its primal origin. 
For the creations of the other days could not exist without light 
or in some cases without heat, in fine without radiation. Take 
away heat rays and all earthly life perishes. Take way light 
rays and all eye nerves perish, and one important sense in animal 
life ceases to be. Take away light and all color fades from vege- 
table life. Take away heat and the seasons cease to be, and va- 
pors to rise, and rivers to flow. But by its help the earth is 
clothed with vegetation, the forests, fields, and waters are filled 
with life, and the seasons glorify the year. While this wheel is 
different from every other wheel in the machinery of the uni- 
verse, it is also the first in time and importance among the six 
creative days. This priority and their dependence prove it to be 
a separate and distinct creation, (e), That radiation with light 
was a creation, as the record declares may appear from the fact 



22 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

that it shows in its relations to other things or departments of 
creation the most complicated and far reaching designs. For 
nowhere is there found the evidence of antagonisms, but every- 
where perfect adaptations of living organisms to the laws of 
radiation previously ordained with the strongest possible evi- 
dence of dependence. These conditions indicate design and 
intelligence infinitely above and before all material things. The 
whole plan of the infinite universe must have been in the mind 
of the author of light when he called into being the laws and 
matter of radiation, with its new and unheard of composition, 
actimic power, marvelous activity, imponderable nature, with its 
power to carry heat through interstellar cold, and light through 
interstellar darkness, apparently without loss of either. An 
agency in the midst of material things entirely distinct and sepa- 
rate from everything, either preceding or succeeding it in the 
economy of nature, antagonising none of them but helping every- 
thing to utility, and in the sentient world, to prosperity and to 
happiness. Such a creation must exist by design, and by the de- 
signer that plans and arranges things for the infinitude of space, 
who is the infinite and eternal God. (f). That light and the laws 
of radiation could not be evolved from the material universe may 
appear from the following contrasted laws of existence. Matter 
moves in orbits and curves. Is subject to attractions and re- 
pulsions. Is made of ponderable elements. Moves through 
space slowly with very great momentum. Is gathered in systems 
of worlds. Light moves only in straight lines. Is not subject 
to either, attractions or repulsions. Is imponderable. Moves 
through space with the highest known speed, but without mo- 
mentum. Each ray starts out into infinite space untrameled by 
the laws that govern matter, such as chemical affinities, molecu- 
lar attraction or gravitation, or orbital motion. Millions of 
radiations are crossing each other's path at every conceivable 
point of space. If radiation was evolved from matter, the child 
shows no kinship to the parent. For all of its laws are different 
from the laws of matter. To fill infinite space with a new order 
of existence can be accounted for only by a creation. However 
we may arrange and combine matter it is still finite in quantity, 
and also without a mind, while radiation is a universal, and has 
every evidence of an intelHgent and designing author. For the 
laws of radiation are mathematically perfect. And so also are 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 23 

the laws of chemistry and astronomy that govern the worlds, but 
each by a different formula and numercial value. And the com- 
plicated character of the formula for the location and structure 
of the heavens, and then for radiation prove each to have been 
a separate creation by one able to arrange these diverse, and 
stupendous affairs of the universe, (g). There are those who 
seem to think that light with its laws was a part of the creation 
of ''the beginning." But God in His Word separates them, and 
light is declared to be a separate creation the work of the first 
day. (h) , The provision by which all radiations are possible, and 
without which none of them could exist, demands a creator who 
could construct things the most diverse, as matter and its laws, 
and radiation and its laws, and set them up together, and fill in- 
finite space with one, and then again with the other and cause 
them to exist together forever, not only without antagonism, 
but as helpers in the vast and complicated structure of material 
things found in infinite space, (i), Light with its laws 
was a creation, that came from the hand of its author perfect 
as it is today, because there is nowhere in nature an evidence of 
its change in structure or constitution, indicating that it under- 
went improvements at any time, as if by a process of develop- 
ment, for the creatures and plants that have lived in geologic 
time extending from the earliest to the latest sedimentary rocks 
seem to show that the light and the heat they enjoyed were es- 
sentially the same throughout the whole of that vast age. They 
were the same in composition and actinic power that they are 
now. The laws of radiation are stored in the coal we burn. The 
knowledge we have already acquired on the work of this creative 
day is sumed up in work on optics, spectrum analysis, photog- 
raphy, radiation, heat as a mode of motion, and solar physics. 
There are some who seem to think that this Bible record of a 
creation is not historically true or scientifically correct. But 
these works on radiation of unquestioned authority bear testi- 
mony to both the scientific and historic truthfulness of this crea- 
tion of the first day. (j), There are some who say the first and 
fourth days of creation are virtually one. We may however note 
some points of difference. The creation of the first day is a 
universal, and makes provision for all finite and limited uses that 
may occur under it, for the lamp light in the house, the arc light 
on the street, the radiant heat that warms our houses, the sun 



24 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

light, and sun heat that warm and light a system of worlds, and 
the star light and heat which it is believed serve many other sim- 
ilar S3^stems of worlds. All of these are dependent on the crea- 
tion of this first day for their utility and without it they could not 
exist as now constituted. And by their constitution they show 
forth the infinite power and goodness of Almighty God. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 25 



THE CREATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 



CHAPTER VI. 

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of 
the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And 
God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were 
under the firmament from the waters which were above the fir- 
mament." Gen. I, 6-y. 

Aiccording to the inspired record the object of this creation 
of a firmament was to divide the waters of the' earth, and send 
some of them aloft, and according to Gen. 2, 6, carry them about 
over the earth. Gen. i, 2, says that prior to this the waters were 
in an ocean. "A deep." "And the Spirit of God moved upon 
the face of the waters." And Gen. i, 9, implies that these waters 
covered the whole earth, for it says, "Let the waters under the 
heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land 
appear." "And the gathering together of the waters called he 
seas." And Gen. i, 7, declares that God made, or created the 
firmament by which he at first "Divided the waters which were 
under the firmament from the waters which were above the fir- 
mament." The first and most important question that suggests 
itself is. What was that creation by which this division of the 
waters was accomplished? Dr. William Smith in his Dictionary 
of the Bible (art, firmament) says : "Correctly speaking the at- 
mosphere is the true firmament by which the clouds are sup- 
ported" and of course the invisible moisture is divided from the 
waters on the earth by this same agent. And (Keil and Delitzsch 
Bib. Com. page 38) say "On the second day the firmament or 
atmosphere was formed." There is some evidence that the 
division of the waters is only part of the work of this firmament. 
It is doubtless a true principle that all the work that that divider 
does it was designed to do, for not anything in God's infinite do- 
main is there by chance. Even the sparrow whether living or 
dead, is cared for in his providence. 

While this firmament constantly takes up, and carries about 
with itself a certain per cent, of moisture, it takes up from the 
earth also, with even more exactness, a fixed per cent, of pure 
oxygen, and also a fixed per cent, of carbonic acid gas. The 



26 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

latter makes the one twenty-five hundredth part of the atmos- 
phere, and the former one-fifth of the atmosphere as we breathe 
it. It is essential in the economy of the world as now constituted, 
that these three things, water, oxygen, and carbonic acid gas, 
be each transported over the earth in its pure state. The water 
as a solvent of earths and to sustain both animal and vegetable 
life. The oxygen to sustain animal life and all combustion. The 
carbonic acid gass to sustain all vegetable life. Vary the per 
cent, of either one of these three things that are now being 
transported over the earth ,and the result would be disasterous 
to all life. The chief use to which God has at this time devoted 
this world. Vary the per cent, of moisture and there would on 
the one hand be a second deluge, or on the other, an all destroy- 
ing drouth. Vary the per cent, of oxygen and all animal life 
would on the one hand run mad, with a form of drunken exhilera- 
tion, after the analogy of laughing gass, or on the other die of 
suffocation, as now constructed, which is evidently part of God's 
plan. Change the per cent, of carbonic acid gass, and on the 
one hand it would destroy animal life, if in surplus, and on the 
other, destroy all vegetable life if there was a deficiency. That 
these three things, water, oxygen, and carbonic acid gas, be 
transported over the world in their pure state to their several 
office works in the economy of nature, as now constructed de- 
manded a divider, a firmanent, of peculiar structure. It must be 
permanently gaseous, and spread over the whole world evenly. 
It must be a neutral element, one that will not enter largely into 
compounds with other existing elements. It must be of sufficient 
volume and density to do this ofifice work. As a servant it must 
have immense physical power. All these conditions are fulfilled 
in the element nitrogen. And practically it is the true dvider, 
the real "firmament," that is so constituted as to fill this place 
in the economy of this world. Gen. i, 6-y, affirms that God cre- 
ated this firmament adding it to the world. The language im- 
plies that the material for this "firmament" did not previously 
exist. This divider of the elements was a new thing, a creation. 

First. It would seem that when these three factors or ele- 
ments, if we may for convenience so call them, were added 
to this divider that they at once co-worked with it, and added to 
its power, and now make what is known to us as the atmosphere. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS, 27 

Which however we have shown is dependent for its existence 
upon the fourth factor, the nitrogen, the creation of the second 
day. 

Second. If the atmosphere came into being with the earth, 
as some seem to suppose, then this division of the waters would 
have existed, by natural laws just as it does now, from "the 
beginning." Aind such division could not properly have been 
spoken of as an additional and subsequent creation. 

Third. The atmosphere now does this work. The waters, 
the oxygen and the carbonic acid gas are carried about over 
the world by it. This is evidence that it has always performed 
that part of the service of this world. 

Fourth. The vapor of water will not stand alone, according 
to the terms of this record dividing the waters from the waters, 
because it is reduced to the liquid form by so slight a change 
in temperature, and then the force of gravity precipitates it to 
the earth as rain. And the clouds, even now, with a lifting power 
to support them, the sum of which is fourteen pounds to the 
square inch, immediately sink toward the earth if for any 
reason the density of the atmosphere has changed but a little. 
If now the atmosphere was removed altogether the clouds 
would fall to the earth as readily and rapidly as a stone, after the 
analogy of the feather and the coin in vacuo. There are those 
who advocate that water in vacuo will evaporate so rapidly that 
it will divide itself. It is true that water will boil in a vacuum 
until the ice will rattle in the retort, yet the vapor produced will 
not stand on that ice but is immediately condensed, and the vacu- 
um is maintained. The jet of cold water in the cylinder of the 
low pressure engine constantly produces the needed vacuum 
before the piston. That the waters might be divided demanded 
the creation of an agent that would take up as much of the vapor 
of water as was needed for the use of the world, and carry it 
at every temperature even to the polar regions, or the highest 
mountains. 

Fifth. There is no evidence that this division of the waters 
was ever at anytime brought about by any other agency, than 
the atmosphere. Therefore it was the creation of the second 
day. It answers perfectly to the conditions of this inspired 
record. 



28 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

Sixth. An atmosphere is not a necessary attendant of 
worlds. The moon does not have an atmosphere. Perhaps the 
same is true of other secondary planets, and also of same of the 
primary planets, as Mars. While some of the major planets have 
an atmosphere differently compounded from that of our earth, 
as Uranus and Neptune, which in each is composed principally 
of carbonic acid gas (Schellen Spec. Anal. pp. 333-337). And 
the outer atmosphere of the sun is an unknown element and the 
next within it is principally of hydrogen, and of vast extent and 
volume, and in flaming heat. Though the sun itself is composed 
of the same element as our earth (Spec. Anal). Therefore it 
is evident there is no natural law by which the various members 
of the solar system have been furnished in this respect of an 
atmosphere. Hence the necessary inference is that, this part 
of the furniture of the several worlds is in each case a separate 
creation from that of ''the beginning," at least if God should so 
declare it, as he has done in regard to this earth. 

Seventh. This reasoning, that the creation of the second 
day was the formation of a neutral element is confirmed by the 
fact, that the earth is composed of elements that have such an 
intense chemical infinity for each other, that if the atmosphere; 
now existing were removed there would not apparently be 
material in the world for another atmosphere similarly com- 
posed, or for an atmosphere of equal volume of any kind. For 
the remaining elements that are gaseous will not stand alone 
in contact with each other, or with the majority of the mineral 
elements, and when compounded they make solids or liquids. 
Therefore when God says he created a divider of the elements, 
he as much as declares it was the creation of the nitrogen which 
is now filling that office. 

2. This ''firmament" was not only a divider of several of 
the elements for certain ends, but it also served other purposes 
in the economy of nature that were equally works of the design 
that demanded its creation. For instance it receives and stores 
for a time a part of the radiant heat of the sun, and transports 
it over the earth. It thus serves the world as a garment shutting 
out interstellar cold and equalizing the temperature of the day 
and the night, and of the winter and the summer in part by 
supported cloud work. Also by the laws of refraction and re- 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 29 

flection it carries the light through the shadows, and gives the 
twilight, lengthens the day and carries the light of the sun 
into our places of abode. Because of its mobility and elasticity 
it becomes a motive power and yet does not impede the activi- 
ties of the world. The laws of the atmosphere determine its 
relations to sound and limit the laws of music and of speech, 
and of hearing. They determine its relations to electricity, 
storms, tornadoes, and its various movements over the earth. 
They determine the fall of the rain, snow, hail and dew. All 
these varied laws that establish its peculiar characteristics 
in the midst of the creations where it holds its place, were as 
much creations as the elements that enter into its composition. 
And they indicate the choice and design and incomparable wis- 
dom of its author. Though in claiming that authorship God 
speaks only of the dividing of the waters, yet that claim of 
necessity embraces all these laws that characterise the atmos- 
phere. 

3. There are those who seem to think that the atmosphere 
in its earlier history was different from what it is now, in com- 
position, specific gravity, and office work in nature. This 
is a speculation that leans on the theory of evolution, but the 
delicacy of its structure, the perfect finish of all its parts, and 
its adaptation to all the ends it serves in the midst of the 
creations would indicate that it came from the hand of God 
perfect in all its appointments, and laws of being, just as we 
know it today. In creation God added the product of one 
perfected thought tO' another until the whole structure of the 
universe was finished. In creation, like in the building of the 
temple, every part was a finished thought before it was laid 
in the structure. In the problem of creation, at each step, God 
affirms he made something where nothing was. His infinite wis- 
dom precludes the idea of His placing an imperfect part or 
thought in the midst of his building. It would mar the stability 
of the whole structure. 

4. We may also note, a point or two concerning tlie rela- 
tive amount of work that is being done today by this divider 
of the waters. The earth of all the continents is constantly 
being saturated. The rocks are filled with water. Wherever 
they are pierced with the drill water is found. All springs and 



30 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

fountains receive a perpetual supply. The lakes of the world 
are kept full, and most of them overflowing. Though it takes 
the River Jordan to supply the annual evaporation from the 
Dead Sea. From the Great Lakes of America, the Niagara 
River is constantly poured forth. The waste of all the glaciers 
is suppHed. The daily supply of dew and rain, snow and hail, 
for all the world do not exhaust the supply that is being con- 
stantly carried about over the earth. And the actual surplus of 
this abundance is measured by the discharge, of all the springs 
and brooks and rivers, into the seas. While the rain fall, over 
about three-fourths of the earth, is back into the sea whence 
it came. 

All of which shows the measure of the liberality and good- 
ness of the Almighty God in his deaUngs with the world. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS, 31 



THE CREATION OF THE CONTINENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

"And God said, 'Let the waters under the heaven be 
gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear,' 
and it was so," Gen. i, 9. 

I. Let us note the state of the earth preceding this event, 
'Tt was covered with water," Gen. i, 2. "The waters had not 
yet been gathered into seas nor had the dry land appeared," 
Gen. I, I. The testimony of nature agrees with these state- 
ments. A number of things indicate that the earth in its earliest 
history was in a molten state. Its spheroid shape is such as its 
axial rotation would give it, if in a plastic state. The elements 
composing the earth if brought together in their pure state 
are so constituted in their relations to each other that they 
would at once unite in chemical combinations with intense heat 
and fusion, sO' that the whole world would be molten. The oldest 
rock was, it is believed, of ignio'US origin, and was in its earliest 
stage in a state of fusion. 

The interior of the world is now in a fused state, for vol- 
canoes in all parts of the world are throwing out lava, that is 
similar in its general constitution showing that these volcanoes 
tap one common fountain or reservoir. Also as we descend 
into the earth in mines and artesian wells the heat increases at 
a regular ratio and this increase is found in all parts of the 
world, and is such as to reach the fusion point at the depth 
of a few miles, which would indicate that the whole interior 
of the earth was now in a state of fusion. The materials of 
the earth in their superpositions indicate that the different 
parts were free to move among themselves in the formation of 
the earth. The lighter factors are on the surface in harmony with 
the law of specific gravities. 

These scriptures, and specifications of nature would in- 
dicate that the rock bound crust of the earth was at first a level 
expanse from pole to pole, and was covered by a universal ocean 
several miles in depth. 

They would also indicate that the molten rock material 
found in the interior of the earth was at its last possible dimen- 



32 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS, 

sion, and that as it cooled into rock it expanded after the 
analogy of water when changing into ice, for the specific gravity 
of granite, and all allied rocks is about one-half of that of the 
molten interior of the earth. And they rest on it. 

As a corollary drawn from these premises, the earth has 
been expanding by a very small per cent, as that molten rock 
material gave up its heat. It has not been shrinking as some 
have supposed. 

2. The crust of the earth has always been stretched like 
an inflated ball by pressure from within, by the expanding rock 
material. And would have remained forever by natural law a 
level expanse, the floor of the ocean, had not God commanded 
the dry land to appear, which was an act above natural law. 

Seemingly the mountains were subsequently formed by this 
pressure from within the earth but in harmony with material law. 

2. In what did this creation consist? The inspired record 
does not tell us. It gives us the commands only that God 
uttered : ''Let the waters under the heaven be gathered to- 
gether unto one place, and let the dry land appear." And it 
was so. It tells us that these commands were sufficient. 'Tt 
was so." Perhaps the creations themselves tell us what was 
accomplished by those commands, in the crust of the earth. 
The language shows that gathering the waters unto one place, 
and causing the dry land to appear had distinctions enough to 
mention them separately. It would indicate that it required as 
much of a creation to prepare a place for the waters as to 
cause the dry land to appear. Recurring then to the question 
at the head of this section. In what did this creation of the con- 
tinents consist? 

First. It would seem to have been the rending of this 
horizontal earth crust that now made the floor of the universal 
ocean, along the proposed shore line of the several continental, 
and sometimes island areas. And then, second, elevating, 
against the force of gravity, such portions as were selected for 
continents to near one level, in all parts of the world. Elevating 
these areas so as to cause what the geologists deminute, "a fault" 
in the rocks of the earth crust along this whole shore line, 
while those parts of the earth's crust that still remained as the 
floor of the oceans were left unmoved, or in areas equal to the 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 33 

continents were made in like manner to sink an equal amount. 
So that the molten interior of the earth was adjusted to the 
changes wrought. The first thing that attracts our attention is 
the magnitude of this creative act. The rending of the earth's 
crust that extended to every degree of both latitude and longi- 
tude. Along the actual shore line of every continent, and also 
island not of volcanic origin. A; line of fracture a hundred 
thousand miles in length, all told, perhaps more. And then, 
the elevation of these continental areas to the height of about 
two miles by measurement. These continental areas, amounting 
to one-fourth of the earth's surface, having been elevated, to 
about the same height in all parts of the world, were keyed in 
place, and, made permanent structures so strangely braced in 
their mighty abutments, that though subsequently loaded with 
mountains miles in height, and of vast areas, And in addition, 
sometimes loaded with glaciers of equal or greater altitude," 
and of far greater area. Yet these continental arches were not 
pressed back by the force of gravity beneath the ocean's level. 
The structures were sufficiently strong for all emergencies. 
While one of the strongest forces in nature the attraction of 
gravitation was overcome in that elevation. Therefore it was 
the work of One still greater, who created. That this appear- 
ance of the dry land was of necessity a creation, not an evolu- 
tion by the help of natural law, but a work above natural law, 
we may note: 

First. The continents were lifted with abrupt and perpen- 
dicular walls, from the level floor of the universal ocean. In 
the act the floor of the oceans was not curved or bent, and the 
surface of the continents retained the same level expanse that 
belonged to them as parts of the ocean's floor. The floor of the 
Atlantic Ocean is now a level expanse from America to Europe, 
and Africa, about three thousand miles wide, and about two 
miles below the surface of the waters, and the shore line of 
the continents. The same is true of the Pacific Ocean with the 
exceptions noted above of areas of greater depression. Deep 
sea soundings by the Challenger in 1870, and other like ex- 
peditions, along with hydrographic coast surveys have established 
the following general principles. That the coast lines of the 
continents are very clearly, and strongly marked by abrupt 
walls. There is about the continents a narrow border, of varying 



34 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

width of shallow seas which is counted by geographers, and al- 
lowed by the laws of nations to belong to the continents. The 
waters gradually deepening are presently a hundred fathoms. 
Here by consent the continents end, and the deep sea begins, 
for near this line the walls of the continents, and of the channels 
of the seas decend by a rapid incline of four hundred to five 
hundred feet to the mile, down to the floor of the oceans that 
are from two to five miles, and in some places even greater 
depth below the water line of the continents, while the floor 
of the oceans is found to consist mainly of vast, and level plains 
of thousands of miles in extent. And the general structure of 
the continents before the mountains were formed coincides with 
the present floor of the oceans. They were at first vast level 
areas from shore to shore, on which perhaps by glacial and 
other agencies the materials of parts of the sedimentary 
rocks were formed or manufactured. The materials for moun- 
tain ranges and areas were in many cases not pushed up through 
from below until after the carboniferous age and in some cases 
until after the tertiary rocks were formed, for fragments of 
these systems of rocks lay on the tops and sides of mountain 
ranges at every incline. They were when formed evidently 
thousands of feet below their present positions on the level plane 
of the earth. 

Now these abrupt walls about all continents, and the uni- 
form and comparatively level floor of all oceans, and also similar 
uniformity and level expanse of all continents for incalculable 
ages after their appearance, show evidently that the appearance 
of the dry land, and the formation of channels and reservoirs for 
the oceans was not the result of curvatures of the earth's crust 
by natural laws, as some have held. No known law of curva- 
tures of such a mass of rocks as existed in the earth's crust 
would have produced a series of such abrupt curves, leaving 
all the rest of the earth's crust, both on the continents, and on 
the floors of the oceans comparatively level areas. If the 
theory of curvatures had been true these curves, by natural 
laws, would have of necessity been gradual, and would have em- 
braced the whole of the earth's crust. Such evidence is wanting. 
Therefore the work of causing the dry land to appear was above 
natural laws, every part of it was by design. It was an 
interposition of Divine power. It was a creation. 



I 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 35 



THE CREATION OF VEGETABLE LIFE. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

"And God said : Let the earth gring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, after his kind, 
whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And the earth brought 
forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree 
yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God 
saw that it was good." Gen. i, 11-12. 

1. (a), This record of the origin of vegetable life shows 
the beginning of a new thought. The natural world attesting 
the fact, by showing both the beginning, and successive steps 
in clothing the earth with vegetation, during its succeeding ages 
from the appearance of the first plant and tree, down to the 
trees, and herbs and grasses, that now cover the earth, (b), 
This record of a new thought, marks a creation, or as many sepa- 
rate creations as there are types of that thought. The terms of 
the command are given, and then the fact of obedience is 
recorded. (c), Also the seed of each was ordained to be in 
itself, separate, and distinct, from every other on the earth. 
The individuality and identity of the various seeds was to be 
perpetuated from generation to generation. This also' is affirmed 
by the testimony of nature, (d), The record also makes this 
declaration, that the primitive creation was of seeds, for each 
kind, which seeds were sown in the earth. And the declaration 
that each seed **Was in itself after his kind," is an affirmation that 
the various seeds were not kindred to each other. Each seed 
had an independent origin and life. There is no thought of 
evolution in these terms : "And afterward when the conditions 
were favorable they grew," Chap. 2, 5. This would require that 
seeds were made for zones, and for continents, and for climates, 
for these specialties are now maintained. The vegetation of 
the frigid zone does not migrate toward the tropics. And, the 
trees and plant life of the tropics do not adapt themselves to the 
frigid zones. 

2. That the creation was of an individual seed for each 
separate speciesi, may appear from the following reasons : 
(a). It is the simplest form in which the new thought can be em- 



36 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

bodied. It is an established fact that all the possibilities of a given 
''grass, herb, tree, or cryptogram." The merus law of the 
future plant is in the seed. Its chemical powers, whether it shall 
produce, in its future growth, sugar, starch, resin, strychnine, 
acid, pigment of color, or woody fiber. Its longevity, whether it 
shall be annual, biennial, or centenarian. If classed among drugs, 
whether it shall be stimulant, sedative, emetic, or cathartic, in its 
action on the animal body, (b), That one seed or two, at the 
most, was planted somewhere in the earth and from that one 
point the world has been filled, in many cases the distribution is 
even yet only partial, (c). The vital laws, embodied in each 
seed, dififer from all others. That each seed selected, ordained, 
and embodied the laws that should rule over it is against reason. 
Each seed as a work of art demanded an author, as a final 
cause, gifted with power that was infinite, guided by reason and 
personality. Even man is superior in wisdom to dead matter. 
But he cannot make seed germs. Hence, the elements of 
matter could not be the author of the mechanism and design 
manifest in each seed, and hence we must ascribe it unto God, 
who is wiser than man, and stronger than nature, and the laws 
that govern it. 

4. Another evidence of the Divine authorship of vegetable 
life is the incorporation of the law of variability into the laws 
that govern each species. The plants that grow from any given 
species vary in certain respects from generation to generation. 
This variation seems to partake of the nature of an infinite 
series. The variation of some species being more rapid than in 
others, and over a wider range. But like every other natural 
law, it is limited in the shpere of its activity. For it cannot be 
shown that of the million of new varieties, that are produced 
each year a single new species has been evolved. And each 
generation has the same likeness. That of variability of the 
parent and is subject to this law of variability and its existence 
among the laws governing the vegetable was apparently by de- 
sign, as much as any other law of the individual plant, (d). The 
object of the law was doubtless to increase, to the utmost, the 
utility of this creation. For seemingly, the list of species for the 
world is filled by creations. And then the element of variability 
fills up the narrow spaces between by slight shades of differences 
for beauty in flowers, and for grateful pleasure and comfort in 



i 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 37 

fruits of all kinds, to those creatures that enjoy the one and 
live on the other, (e), This law was a separate creation for each 
species, for it has not the same range, and compass for any two 
species, or the same degree of rapidity by which they are made, 
(f). The law where found is shown to be a creation, by the de- 
signed narrowness of the extreme known limits of change, 
(g), By the shortness of the time, in which, these changes may 
be attained, for improvements or regression. The seeds of one 
season producing some of the poorest, as well as, some of the 
best varieties, of each species, (h), This law of variation is a 
creation, for each new species, for the law for each is different, 
and therefore has as many forms as there are species of plants 
and trees in the world. 

5. Another evidence of the creation of each species is 
found in the law of chastity, that is wrought into the laws of 
each. That any seed germ may have life in itself to produce a 
plant it must at the proper time of its growth receive power 
from the pollen of its own kind of plant. Thousands of species 
of plants are growing together in the fields and forests, whose 
pollen dust is being carried intermingled, by the winds in all 
directions, at the same time and is being carried by the bees 
into flowers of many differing species, each hour. Now this 
law of chastity makes every stigma immune to every form of 
pollen except that from its own species, and every form of pollen 
powerless except on a stigma of its own species. This universal 
law of chastity or immunity must be by design. Each form 
of pollen must be a separate creation. The vital force of each 
species of pollen differs from that of every other in existence. 
And the stigma of each species of plant is gifted with a quality of 
sensitiveness, that does not belong to any other in existence. 
This difference is structural, vital and chemical. The creation 
of each is acording to laws of its own, and after plans and speci- 
fications found nowhere else in nature. They are differently 
constructed, therefore this law of chastity, of immunity. If all 
pollen dust, and all stigmas were made after the same structural, 
vital and chemical plans the law of immunity of species would 
not exist. A few exceptions in nature as the mule, and zebula 
with their subsequent sterility prove the truth of the law. 

6. Another evidence of the creation of each species of plant 
and tree is found in the systematic arrangement of species, into 



38 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

orders and genera, and yet each species made after a different 
merus law in many essential respects of structure, and life, and 
chemical composition. It is a fact, known to every botanist that 
there are differences between plants of the same order as marked 
and positive as between individual plants of different orders. 
The rose bush and the apple tree both belong to the order 
Rosaseae, but they are far apart in almost every respect. A 
certain similarity of flowers bring them together for classifica- 
tion. Wheat and timothy both belong to the same order 
Gramina, but they differ very materially, the one from the other, 
and both differ again from corn, another plant of the same 
order. The vital and chemical and structural laws of each 
differ from all other plants of the same order. The 
apparent relationship is of design and is no nearer 
in each instance than in crystals of minerals differently com- 
pounded, and for which kinship could not be claimed, though 
both belong to the same order of minerals, as silicates, car- 
bonates, or alluminates. The world in its composition and 
products is evidently, as a whole, an object lesson, in art, for 
those who are designed to live upon it, and be students of its 
contents and resources. The world is a landscape garden full 
of harmonies and beauties. The world is a pallatial residence. 
The buildings and grounds around them are full of contrasted 
beauties. 

The world by design was filled with harmonies, like the 
shades of color in the solar spectrum, each joined to the other, 
but each governed by its own laws and owing its existence to a 
separate creation. Each separate law is a new thought framed 
by design into the structure of things, whether it be in the 
field of vegetation, or of light by which the vegetation is painted, 
or of the mineral from which it draws its daily food. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 39 



ON VARIABILITY AND UTILITY OF SPECIES. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Creations mark the boundaries of science, creations of 
matter and law. Discussions on science on questions outside of 
creations would be the discussion of science falsely so called. 

The law of variability has a limit. It is not an infinite 
series, and an open door for the propagation of species. Because 
creations show the limit of existing things. This is the assump- 
tion of the record of creation and is supported by the natures 
of things. Matter and laws go together. Law is the regulation 
of matter, whether the things are intellectual, material or spirit- 
ual. And when we say the law of variability is limited, by the 
field of utility we speak a necessary truth because of the law of 
creations, because there are no creations beyond the field of 
utility. There is no evidence that God has made useless things. 
Hypothetical varieties are mythical structures. Thus we see 
that the law of variability has a limit and that limit is creation. 
A creation is making something where nothing was. This 
prerogative in the field of nature belongs alone to God. He can, 
as he has showed us, create bread, meat, water, meal, oil, life, 
manna, souls of men, worlds, and elements of matter. 

A science is the investigation of some branch or part of 
creation, some of the discussions on variability and effects of 
environment are mythical because there is nothing in nature 
that is like them. 

The field of creation is limited and its boundaries well de- 
fined, and is discoverable. And everywhere utility seems to be 
the chief end in creation. 

Now it is evident that all things that exist have their being 
by design, and are the works of intelligence both in law and 
matter, while beyond the field of creation the field of science 
cannot extend. Therefore we affirm that the field of variability 
is limited by the law of utility, and we have found the boundary 
line for creations that can be numbered and classified. There- 
fore we say the law of variability is limited by the law of utility. 



40 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

And all things are of necessity under the supervision of a Con- 
trolling intelligence. i\nd utility is a measureable quantity, and 
its place in the midst of existing things is well defined. 

The law of variability serves its purpose among the laws 
of nature. But its work is not as great as some have labored to 
show it to be. 



^ 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 41 



THE CREATION OF SUN LIGHT. 



CHAPTER X. 



"And God made two great lights; the greater Hght to rule 
the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; He made the 
stars also." Gen. i, i6. 

The first verse of Genesis says : "In the beginning God 
created the heavens and the earth." Therefore assuming that 
the author of the record knew his subject, which none can 
question, this fourth day speaks of a special use to which cer- 
tain worlds, the sun, moon and stars, were now appointed. 
Before this appointment they were not light bearers. But were 
like other worlds dark. The division of the subject matter ot 
the creative record shows us that the creation of light was a 
provision for the infinitude of space. The act is not limited, 
but the preparation of light bearers was for a specific and limited 
purpose. With this agrees the testimony from nature. The 
laws of light are a universal, while the laws of the light bearer 
limit the sphere of their influences. These facts present the 
proposition that the sun, moon and stars give light because of 
their peculiar structure, that adopts and prepares them for this 
service among the worlds. 

We shall endeavor to gather up some of the evidences 
that go to prove this proposition. 

1. It was a work of design, shown by the harmony that 
exists between sun light and heat, and previous and subsequent 
creations, the most diverse, in both law and matter, and so was^ 
a creation. 

2. The light and heat from the sun prepares the world 
for the support of both animal and vegetable life, and therefore 
was a creation. 

3. The spectrum of the sun shows that it is surrounded by 
an atmosphere of peculiar physical structure, and so was a 
work of design. 

4. This peculiar atmosphere, if we may call it an atmos- 
phere, is so dense as to make the disc of the sun, and is appar- 
ently the main source if its light and heat, and was a new 
device among created things. 



42 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

5. Between this outer atmosphere, and the body or nucleus 
of the sun there seems to be an open expanse of great depth, 
or height shown in the sun spots. These facts suggested to 
the mind of Sir WiUiam Herchel the idea that from the nucleus 
of the sun to the photosphere there was a non-luminous atmos- 
phere while the light and heat of the sun were evolved from the 
photosphere. 

6. It is now known by the aid of the spectroscope that the 
photosphere or disc of the sun is composed in part of an at- 
mosphere of matallic vapors, from 3000 to 8000 miles in alti- 
tude, called the chromosphere. Beyond this chromosphere there 
is an atmosphere of hydrogen, in which clouds of flame mainly 
of hydrogen have been known to rise in twenty minutes of time 
to the height of two hundred thousand miles, and then entirely 
disappear within half an hour (C. A. Young in Johnson's Cyclo- 
pedia, Art, Sun). 

7. Beyond this hydrogen there is the corronal atmosphere, 
of some unknown substance, far more rare than hydrogen and 
of great altitude. (Ibid) Keil and Delitzsch (Bib. Com. Old 
Tes., page 49), say it is now a generally accepted truth of 
natural science, that the light does not spring from the sun and 
stars, but that the sun itself is a dark body, and the light pro- 
ceeds from an atmosphere which surrounds it. 

8. And now that the photosphere is like a garment, or 
universal sheet of cloud structure cast about the true body of the 
sun is apparent from the fact that it is moveable, shown by the 
sun spots that come, and enlarge, and depart, and also make 
sudden forward movements. The equatorial parts of this photo- 
sphere revolve once in about twenty-five days, while at the lati- 
tude of 44 degrees it is in twenty-eight days. Showing that the 
elements of the photosphere have free, and in this case at least, 
regular movements among themselves. 

9. So far as we are able to experiment on the degree and 
intensity of sun light, it is not produced by the radiation of heat 
from a molten world. Such light, which is metallic as a lime 
light, is dark when projected against the disc of the sun. 

10. An atmosphere is not a necessary part of a world 
structure. The moon does not have an atmosphere, perhaps 
the same is true of other secondary planets. Mars does not have 
an atmosphere, and the atmosphere of the earth is nitrogen with 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 43 

oxygen and carbonic acid gas. That of Neptune and Uranus 
are said to be of carbonic acid gas. The atmosphere of worlds 
is evidently a work of design, of choice, by him who made the 
worlds, and selected the places they should fill in the universe. 

11. This difference in the structure of worlds would argue 
that no two worlds known to us are devoted to the same uses. 

12. Here then, recurring to the proposition that the sun 
gives light and heat because of its peculiar structure, we have 
a world, the central one of our system, of very wonderful struc- 
ture, dififering from every other known to us, having four dis- 
tinct atmospheres one above another, clearly defined, and of vast 
extent or volume, as compared with the atmospheres that sur- 
round other worlds. That of the earth is not more than about 
fifty miles in altitude. These atmospheres were evidently 
works of design, and hence were creations of God, as the record 
affirms. 

13. The different structure of the several members of the 
solar system as to atmospheres, argues that they were not 
evolved from a common source or body of matter, but each 
was made as it pleased the author who planned them to differ, 
and thus manifested his supreme power and glory. 

14. What then is sun light? The nearest representative or 
equivalent we can produce is the electric light. The electric 
arc is both the hottest and brightest fire we build. Also our elec- 
tric light may be made as bright as the sun. Though we may 
not in a dogmatic way affirm that sun light is electric. Yet there 
is an intimate connection between the two shown by the co- 
incidence of sun spots and electric phenomena on the earth. 

Garret Service, in Public Opinion, June 7, 1900, says on the 
phenomena of the solar eclipse of May 28, of that year : **Look- 
ing at the corrona and the polar rays the impression that the 
sun is an enormous dynamo machine was overwhelming." 



44 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 



THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS. 



CHAPTER XL 



The argument of the last chapter would lack in complete- 
ness if we left it without the consideration of its negative. The 
negative is the evolution of the solar system from nebulous 
matter, by its transmutation into known elements and condensa- 
tion into worlds, the last step of which is now in progress in 
evolved sun light. With this prophecy of the future, when 
the matter of the sun reaches its utmost condensation, as it 
eventually will, then it too will become a dark world, and the 
solar system will sink into endless night, and the stars shall 
one by one cease to shine and the infinitude of space will be 
shrouded in darkness. 

We wish to show the incompatability of this theory of the 
origin and end of things with the laws of nature now holding, 
and thereby emphasize the literal truthfulness of the inspired 
record, which does give a reasonable account of the origin of 
worlds and their uses, and perpetuity. 

I. The known forms of matter cannot be put into the 
conditions of that supposed nebulae by heat or by chemical 
tests. The chemical laws now holding over the elements of 
matter make it impossible to destroy them. If the known ele- 
ments of matter were vaporized, the nearest approach to that 
supposed nebulae known to us, there is then no known force in 
nature now holding, that could diffuse and disperse them into 
space, as that supposed nebulae was diffused. The vapors of 
water, as an illustration, must be lifted from the earth, and will 
rise no higher than that force puts them. The difficulties in the 
way may be apparent when we consider the enormous 
power of that lifting force, now in office, 14 pounds to the 
square inch of the earth's surface, and then consider the very 
limited altitude to which even that force can carry them. If 
we condense that vapor it is at once back to its original form. 
There is no chemical process that will nebularize an element 
or change the laws of its being so that of its natural accord it 
will be exempt from gravity. The flaming hydrogen at the disc 
of the sun is not deprived of its elementary constitution. It 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 45 

reports itself in the solar spectrum. And it cannot by the most 
intense heat known tO' us be driven into interstellar space. 
Even electricty is held in bondage by the various world masses 
of matter, though itself is imponderable. 

That supposed nebulae must have been of a constitution 
unknown to chemistry so that, the. most fertile imagination 
cannot define or differentiate its true character. And hence the 
existence of that nebulae is altogether a product of the imagin- 
ation, and its actual existence a myth. 

2. Suppose however that such a form of matter did exist, 
and the solar system was framed out of it then what must have 
followed. This nebulous form of matter must have been trans- 
muted into the 72 or more elements now composing the earth 
and sun and meteorites. But of the possibility of such trans- 
mutation there is no proof ^v'hatever. It is not found in the 
laboratory of nature, or of the chemist. The countless forms of 
mineral compounds, and of animal and vegetable life, each with 
its different formula of composition, and each a distinct and 
separate laboratory within itself, though all of them use some 
part of the 72 or more elements, and the various combinations 
are innumerable of minerals, food products, both for animal and 
vegetable, and poisons, and colors, and textile fabrics, etc., yet 
none of them transmute any of the 'J2 elements into some new 
form of matter, or evolve a new element, or destroy an old 
element. The alchemists tried it and failed. The spectroscope 
shows that the existing elements retain their individualit}^ even 
in the chromosphere and photosphere of the sun, and remain 
subject, apparently to all the laws that govern these elements 
on this earth. There is no such thing in nature as a transmuta- 
tion of the elements of matter, or the destruction of an element. 
Any theory of the origin of existing things that implies, or de- 
mands these things is evidently untrue to nature. All prehis- 
toric forms of matter are mythical. Transmutation is possible 
only as a miracle, as turning water into wine, the rod into a 
serpent, the dust into lice. The necessity of transmutation 
shows the nebular theory false. 

3. If now we take this supposed nebulae and attempt to 
reduce it to the worlds of the solar system it involves a game of 
fast and loose, for it implies that the central nebulae could not 
hold all of its matter together but rings of matter according to 



46 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

the theory, were left behind, as many times as there are planets. 
But yet it must be allowed that the substance of these several 
supposed rings of matter were very firmly held in their several 
orbits. There is no sign of weakness now apparent in the solar 
system. The planets are held firmly in their orbits. The game 
of fast and loose over the same matter at the same time is not 
found in nature, and is not true and the theor}^ is proved false 
a second time. 

If now we turn to the Martian system of worlds, we find 
another form of variableness to be in demand to a very marked 
degree. From the outer moon to the inner moon the axial 
rotation of the parent nebulae must have increased its speed 
nearly four times, then from the time the inner moon was formed 
to the present era of its existence dimished its speed more 
than three times, for the time of the outer moon is, 3oh. i8m. 
The time of the inner moon is /h. 39m., making nearly four 
revolutions w^hile the outer moon makes one, while the time of 
the planet's daily revolution is now 24h. 37m. 22.67s. The 
length of the present Martian day is determined by observa- 
tions extending over more than 200 ^^ears, and is true to the 
67-100 of a second indicating absolute regularity of axial or 
daily revolution at the present time. This mutability of planet- 
ary motion demanded by the nebular h3^pothesis is contrary to 
all known law, and the hypothesis is therefore proved untrue. 

The truth of the inspired account of the origin of w^orlds 
is apparent from the necessity of creations, in their supposed 
evolution from this imaginary nebulae. 

The several transitions demand changes that are so radical 
as to require creations to secure them. This nebulae or fire 
mist had existed a certain time, perhaps an eternity without 
condensation. Evidently the law of gravity did not exist or 
that nebulae was not subject to such law. To exist, such law 
must have been selected and all matter subjected to it. This 
law automatically locates the center of every mass of matter 
and there draws with equal force every particle of that mass 
toward that center. Gravity with its attracting force impels mat- 
ter into perfect spheres, whether it be shot or rain drop or 
worlds. 

And then it holds it there with all its power quiescent for- 
ever. If left to itself it would apparently force all the matter 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 47 

of the universe into one motionless mass, because the pressure 
is equal from each quadrant of the sphere. 

Now this nebulae did not give birth to this new force, and 
then subject itself to the new master. Its existence argues an 
intelligent and designing author and this necessary creation of 
a new law and force proves the theory false a fourth time. 

Another such new departure is found in the law of orbital 
motions of the planets, supposed to have been evolved out of 
this nebulae. But the existence of the law implies the supervi- 
sion of a designing author, and the necessity of a creation. 
Another such new departure is found in the existence of axial 
rotations. These new laws prove the nebular theory false a fifth 
and a sixth time. 

These great laws of motion that govern the matter of worlds 
could not come from one common impulse, for they often antag- 
nise, and are at right angles to each other. And the various 
systems of worlds approach and recede from each other from 
every point of space. These separate laws of motion would 
seem to indicate as many separate creations, as there are de- 
partures in nature, and the theory is proved false a seventh 
time. 

One fact seems to indicate that there is among the worlds 
found in interstellar space a universal principle of repulsion, 
above and greater than attraction of gravitation, that sends these 
heavenly bodies back in their several orbits, so that a fixed star 
that nevertheless moves, cannot escape from the confines of its 
own territory, nor aught that belongs to it escape to some other 
system of worlds, after the analogy of the multiple and vari- 
able stars. If such force exists it did not originate from matter 
but must have been a product of choice, a work above nature, 
a creation. 

Each planetary motion is of necessity a new departure, and 
a new creation, because so far as the solar system is concerned, 
which may be a type of all systems of worlds, no two worlds 
have their axis parallel to each other, or have orbits at the 
same inclination to the plane of the ecliptic, or axial rotation of 
the same number of hours. No two members of the solar 
system have the same pole star. In all of these respects each 
world has its own individual characteristics. Hence no one 



48 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

planet begat another. No one planet has such motions that we 
can safely ascribe them to another planet, we must look beyond 
to an intelligent and Divine author, who made all things as 
he pleased. The theory of evolution according to the nebular 
hypothesis is not true to nature's laws that now govern all 
things. Each world was a separate creation because it possesses 
an individuality peculiar to itself alone. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 49 



THE CREATION OF ANIMAL LIFE. 



CHAPTER XII. 



"And God said : Let the waters bring forth abundantly 
the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above 
the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created 
great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the 
waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every 
winged fowl after his kind." Genesis i, 20-21. 

"And God said : Let the earth bring forth the living crea- 
ture after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the 
earth after his kind, and it was so. And God made the beast 
of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every- 
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind." Genesis 
I, 24-25. 

These two, the fifth and sixth days of the creative record, 
treat of a kind of life, that has a certain view of similarity run- 
ning through all its varied forms, and because of that similarity 
we join them in this discussion. Also, the life ancient and 
modern seem to be joined in one. For many species of plants 
and animals now living in the world did live also in tertiary 
age of the world. In some cases as high as 50, 60, and even 70 
per cent, of the forms of marine life of the tertiary age are still 
found in the seas. And every year modern discovery increases 
the number of examples that serve to illustrate this fact. (Dana's 
Geology, p. 542) : Globerina shells and cocoliths like those 
found in the cretaceous formation, which underlies and is 
therefore older than the tertiary formation of rocks and earth 
are now living in the deep Atlantic. (Wyville Thompson, "The 
depth of the sea") : Showing that modern life is joined to that 
which is more ancient at many points, so that the forms of life in 
the different geologic ages from the tertiary down to the silurean 
so overlap each other that they prove clearly that the earth has 
been continuously inhabited, to its full capacity, ever since life 
began upon it, and show that modern life cannot be separated 
from the most ancient by any known azoic age, or by the be- 
ginning of a wholly new order of things at any time after the first 
forms of life appeared on the earth. Though at the same time 



50 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

it is abundantly shown that the various species of plants and 
animals have each had a limited duration. Sometimes existing 
through but a part of a geological formation (Hitchcock's Geol. 
pp. 361-362). And none of them extending through all of the 
fossiliferous rocks down to modern time. Therefore both science 
and the Bible would seem to demand that all ancient forms of 
life (John i, 3) as well as those that are modern must be in- 
cluded under the head of creations of these three days, for 
there is no break in the order of succession. 

But if now we include, in these three days, all that we 
know to exist under these several heads of creation embraced 
in the third, fifth and sixth days then it will appear, that these 
three days were of necessity very extended periods of time, as 
extended as the time occupied in the formation of all the sedi- 
mentary rocks. Also it will appear that the periods or days of 
the creative week were of unequal lengths of time. 
Also it will appear from the testimony of nature, which is 
no insignificant witness in the case, that at least the third, fifth 
and sixth days were composed in part of cotemperaneous times, 
in which the world was often and at the same points of time 
being replenished with creations, for each of the three days. 
For species of vegetable life, and of animal life for sea, earth and 
air lie buried in the same graves all over the world. They must 
therefore have lived together. While these days were therefore 
cotemperaneous, yet each day had nevertheless its evening and 
its morning, its beginning and its ending, separate and distinct 
from all the rest, and each day was all comprehensive, also the 
days were properly speaking successions in the order named 
both as to their mornings and evenings. 

It now remains to show that the affirmations of the separate 
creation of each individual parent of any given race or species 
of animate Hfe is necessarily the true account of the origin of 
things. The text speaks of the creation of each after his kind. 
The creation is individualized, the male and his female. And 
when for man there was no companion found one was made. 
Now the proofs of this necessary creation of each individual 
parent of each species is shown by the marks of separate design 
manifested in each individual creature made. 

In presenting this argument from design let us select an 
animate body of the most complete structure found in the world, 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 51 

as an object lesson by which to point out some of the marks of 
that design found in the structure of animate Hfe, and thus 
show the necessity of its being a creation. In its structure it 
is composed of many systems joined in one Hving creature skill- 
fully framed together, as the nervous system, the osseous system, 
the cartilagenous system, the muscular system, the circulatory 
system, the respiratory system, the absorbent system, the aH- 
mentary system, the glandular system, the reproductive system, 
the integumentary system, the system of natural clothing, and 
lastly, the vital system, which is over all the moving power that 
gives united activity to all these parts. 

Then each of these systems is subdivided again into many 
parts, as the nervous system into nerves for seeing, hearing, 
smelling, tasting, feeling, the power of motion, and the mental 
faculties. The osseous into bones of many forms and sizes and 
uses, so the cartilages and muscular. The respiratory system 
and circulatory system into lungs, heart, arteries, veins. The 
absorbent system intO' a series of provisions by which the waste 
and dead material of the living body may be carried out of it. 
The system of natural clothing into hair, fur, feathers, scales, 
wool or shell. To these and over all in each form of creature 
is added the factor of life that binds these several systems into 
one living body or being. And this life makes each part or fac- 
tor of which the body is composed minister to the maintenance, 
and utility of the whole body, and to the perpetuity of the given 
species. While these thirteen systems or separate parts are 
joined into one body they differ in structure and composition, 
and ofifice work, the one from the other. To show their separate- 
ness we may note that each one of these systems or parts of the 
body are subject to diseases peculiar to themselves, as diseases 
of the lungs, heart, nerves, bones, secretions, or skin, and also 
in the natural world there are remedies or medicines found for 
each, that act with special power on the diseased parts, as ner- 
vines, sudarifics, cathartics. The physician's skill is shown in 
his being able to diagnose the true location of the disease, and 
in his ability to select from the material world about him the 
best antidotes for that disease. Also each system is essential to 
the life and perpetuity of the whole body. These several 
systems framed together into one structural make 
one of the most wonderful and cunningly devised 



52 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

pieces of machinery in existence. It can do more kinds of work, 
and serve a greater number of purposes than all the thirty 
thousand patent machines that men have invented, the models 
of which are stored in the patent office at Washington. And if 
these patents are severally works of design, and creations and 
what can be said of this human body as a machine, it also must 
be a work of design, and therefore a creation. Also because of 
the superiority of this piece of living machinery over all that 
men have invented, the designer and creator must have been 
immeasurably wiser and greater in artistic skill than any man. 
To show the wonderful character of this creation and also 
design, let death and decay take hold of the material substance 
of these several systems in any given body and they all crumble 
to a few earthy, and liquid, or gaseous elements, and thus prove 
that the original designer, and builder took parts of these ele- 
ments, and constructed them into these living factors of the 
living body, and out of them made the eye for seeing, the ear 
for hearing, the brain for thought and reason, and commanding 
the body, the stomach for dissolving food, and the heart for 
forcing the blood to every part of the body. And also out of 
these same mineral elements constructing and then fitly fram- 
ing every other part of the body into one harmonious whole, 
a wonderful structure. Then to all these when built together, 
added the factors of life, mind and soul, that are not found in 
elements of matter. These facts greatly intensify the evidence 
of design, and also of creation. Indeed it is utterly impossible to 
account for them in any other way. For each separate system is 
a new use of these elements of matter, and the utility of each 
is dependent upon a new series of laws that God only, the in- 
finite mind, could ordain. Laws of the nerve substance, laws of 
the bone substance, laws of the muscular substance, etc. An- 
other thing, that emphasizes the evidence of design, and also 
emphasizes the wisdom of the designer, as well as the genius 
of the creator of this object lesson, is found in the facts that 
the eye is perfectly adapted to the laws of radiation, the ear to 
the vibrations of the air, the sense of smell to the existence of 
perfumes and ordors, the gastric juice to the chemical composi- 
tion of food materials. The designer knew the inherent con- 
stitution of all the elements of matter and had the wisdom and 
power to handle them as he pleased, or as he designed. The 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 53 

further evidence of design, and of creation, may be seen in the 
adaptation of other parts of this body to the ends that were 
evidently in the mind of the designer. The hand was adapted 
to handling, the foot to walking, the body of a man to upright- 
ness, the muscular parts for useful and necessary motions, the 
involuntary muscles to act a life time without weariness. The 
evidence of design and also of creation is still further intensified 
when we take into view the whole number of living creatures 
found in the world, and note that no two species of animate life 
are constructed alike, each dififers from all the others in various 
essential particulars. The laws that govern their structure and 
composition differ. The blood corpuscles are not alike. The 
murderer can be detected by the blood stains on his garments. 
The atomic structure of the ovum, and of the seminal fluid of 
each species differ from those of all others, so that hybrid species 
are not known to arise. The integumentary system of each 
species is peculiar to itself and different form all others. The 
structure of the natural clothing of one species is distinct and 
separate in part or whole from another. A fossil tooth, will 
enable a scientist to construct the whole creature because of the 
certain harmony that exists in the differences of these several 
parts. And so on, through all the different systems or parts 
composing each several species where contrasts can be made. 
These variations, as numerous as there are species in existence, 
argue a separate design for each. The designing mind planned 
them to differ. Each model in the patent office was designed to 
be different from every other. So in the great museum of 
nature. This evidence of design in the structure of all the 
separate parts of this living being, we have chosen, is intensi- 
fied when we note that no one of these several systems of which 
it is composed can do the office work in that body that belongs 
to another. The osseous system cannot do the work of the 
muscular, the alimentary system cannot do the work of the ab- 
sorbent system, the circulatory system cannot do the work of 
the nervous system. And no one of these can do the work 
of the element of life that pervades the whole structure. 

Also we may note that each part was designedly framed to 
the others, for one system could not beget another, and then 
frame it into the body, and give it its office work, and then 
originate the new laws that govern its functions. Nor could 



54 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS, 

any one S3^stem design and then create itself, and then, later on, 
search the animal world for a home, and when it found a 
suitable place frame itself into that body, and become an essen- 
tial and useful part of its being. Neither could the combined 
power of all these systems that exist in the human body devise, 
and then incorporate a new system into the human body. 
Christ apparently answers such a speculation as that when he 
says : "Who by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature." 
Much less could he add a new factor, a new sense or mental 
faculty to the framework of his body. None but the Divine 
architect who first designed and then constructed the eye could 
so change it, as to enable it to see with the ultra red, and ultra 
violet, and X rays. To such a vision all sohds would be trans- 
parent. Our inventions in the field of optics make no progress 
in that direction. The telescope and microscope only increase 
our power of vision now possessed. 

Neither could a new sense or system or part of a system 
transmigrate from some other form of animate life, and become 
a part of the human body, or even be engrafted upon it. Such 
addition would make it a monstrocity, a dagon, a mermaid, a 
centaur, or a moloch. It is true the human mind has framed 
the ideals of such creatures, but these intellectual creations were 
known to be myths, and not real, illustrating the impossibility 
of adding any new factors to any form of living creature. Each 
species is a seperate creation because each is constructed after 
a different merus law of bones, cartilages, muscles, blood cor- 
puscles, nervous system, digestive system, reproductive system, 
integuments, natural covering, and life. These laws of individu- 
ality that determine the characteristics of each species are no 
small part of each separate creation. By these laws one species 
is made to differ from another in every respect — chemically, 
in structure, and as food substance, also they indicate the minut- 
est specifications of the several designs in any given structure. 
What shall be its disposition, mode of motion, size, dental 
formula, whether carniverous or vegetarian, whether fowl, fish, 
mammalia or beetle. What the simplicity or complexity of each 
structure, as compared with that example we selected above. 
These laws also determine the utility and office work of the 
given species in the economy of the world. Whether servant 
as the horse or ox. Or producer of valuable products as the 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 55 

sheep, sea otter, silk worm or swine. Or to act as a scavenger 
as the vulture, buzzard, or burial beetle. Or whether they shall 
be builders in the frame work of the world, as corals, infusoria, or 
shell fish. But the merus laws of each, when ordained are 
immutable, and remain the same for each species from genera- 
tion to generation, and from one geologic age to another. Con- 
cerning these laws the following points are self-evident: (a), 
These laws were not self-made, (b). They were not devised by 
the creatures subject to them., as the laws of a state have been 
by the people in it. (c). They were not devised and called into 
being by other laws, called laws of nature, (d) , One creature did 
not originate the laws for another creature, (e), Man, a law- 
maker and builder of new designs, did not originate any of the 
laws of nature or laws that govern the structure and the life of 
the animate world around him. (f). The laws of each species 
are so wrought into the structure of that species 
that they show themselves to be parts of the design, and in- 
separable from it. (g), The laws for each one of the half-million 
of species that inhabit the world are so different from the laws 
that govern every other one of the half-million species, that each 
species must have had a separate creation, to acount for its ex- 
istence, as well as a separate design, by a competent designer, 
(h). The several forms of animate life for sea, earth and air, are 
so related to each other, in ideal that they must have been de- 
signed and made by the same author. A being of infinite intel- 
ligence to be able to frame in his mind the models or ideals for 
all the separate creatures that have inhabited and do now inhabit 
the world. And a being of infinite power in commanding to be 
able to cause the lifeless elements of matter to assume all the 
forms that are found in the animate world, and perform all the 
functions that characterize the living creatures that inhabit all 
lands and all seas, (i), Also the infinite resources and wisdom 
of the author of the life of the world appears in that the laws that 
control the life of each species of living things as compared with 
the laws for every other species of living things are new laws. 
Though all of them were evidently designed and ordained by 
the same law giver, because they all ocupy a field of legislation 
accessible only to God, the one Being infinitely wise, and of 
infinite power and resources, (j). Each creature represents a 
finished thought, not susceptable of improvement, for its special 



56 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

place and work. It therefore came perfect from the hand of the 
alwise and designing author. Take away the toes from the 
sloth and the whole structure would need to be changed. Take 
away the trunk from the elephant and the species would im- 
mediately perish from the earth. Take away the reason from 
the mental faculties of the man and he would at once cease to be 
the lord of creation. Each special part of each individual crea- 
ture shows a finished thought on the part of the author. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 57 



THE DAYS OF CREATION— AN HISTORIC FACT. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

''And the evening and the morning were the first day." 
Gen. I, 5. 

"And the evening and the morning were the second day." 
Gen. I, 8. 

''And the evening and the morning were the third day." 
Gen. I, 13. 

"And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." 
Gen. I, 19. 

"And the evening and the morning were the fifth day." 
Gen. I, 23. 

"And the evening and the morning were the sixth day." 
Gen. I, 31. 

"And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because 
that in it he had rested from all his work." Gen. 2, 3. 

According to the fourth commandment man's week for 
labor and rest is founded upon God's creative week. There 
are some points of contrast however, between the two which 
it may be well to notice, (a), Man's week for work and rest 
is limited to seven consecutive revolutions of the earth on its 
axis, (b), God's creative week, judged by the works performed 
in it, must have been a period of incalculable duration, and the 
day of rest may prove to be a time equally extended, for the 
scriptures warrant us in believing that the present order of 
things which is God's Sabbath, will last until the day of judg- 
ment, when time shall be no more. 

(c), Man's week forever repeats itself, (d), There is no in- 
dication in nature or revelation that God's creative week as here 
recorded will ever repeat itself, (e), The days of man's week are 
of the same length, that is, twenty-four hours each, (f), The 
days of God's week of work and rest, judged solely by the works 
performed in each, that are enumerated in the record, and are 
visible in the material universe, were of differing periods of time. 
The first and second may each have been but a moment, or the 
times, selected in which to give the commands : "Let there be 
light," and "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, 



68 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

and let it divide the waters from the waters," while the remain- 
ing days of the creative week have been periods of great dura- 
tion, witnessed by the slow process of building the sedimentary 
rocks which contain countless generations, of animal and vege- 
table life, buried in the order and succession in which they lived, 
each, to maturity and old age. (g), The days of man's week are 
strictly successions of time. The new day never begins until the 
old day is finished. Time comes to man moment by moment, 
and day by day. (h), The days of God's creative week had, in 
part, the elements of successions of times and, in part, they were 
composed of cotemporaneous times, like so many departments 
of work carried forward at the same time, while the things 
wrought in each were separate and distinct in all respects. For 
the fact that the flora of the third day, the fishes and birds of 
the fifth day, and the mammalia of the sixth day, lie buried in the 
same grave, the fossiliferous rocks of the different geologic ages 
prove that they were being created at the same time, in like 
manner, so also the several branches of natural science written 
upon these creations of the several days show how distinct each 
day in its creations was from all the others. Also these several 
departm.ents of days of creation are found to fall, naturally into 
a certain chronological order that answers to the successions of 
the creative days as recorded. This thought of successions is an 
essential part of the record. But also that the creations of the 
days were in part carried forward cotemporaneously is the 
undoubted testimony of nature. We think the evidence is suffici- 
ent to show that both of these points are true. Let us first 
note this law of successions. 

I. The laws of light and of radiation, the work of the first 
day, were essential to the existence and completeness of each 
of the subsequent days or departments of creation and prepares 
the way for them, and they can exist under the constitution and 
laws that now govern each of them only by the assistance of this 
first day's work. For take away the laws of radiation, which in- 
clude those of light, and the utility of all subsequent creations 
would instantly cease, and most parts of them perish. There- 
fore the first day's creation necessarily precedes the works of 
the other days, and the place it holds in the record is the true 
one. The interdependence of the days demand that this day be 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 59 

placed first on the list in the enumeration of the days. The 
author of the record made no mistake. 

2. The atmosphere or the creation of the second day, is now 
and apparently always has been essential to the existence of all 
material life on this earth, and must therefore have preceded 
it. For all flesh is now introgenous in composition, and hence 
it was one of the elements used in construction of living crea- 
tures. Also vegetable and animal life have always existed 
under its pressure, and as the supporter of the elements essen- 
tial to the principle of respiration that is wrought into the struc- 
ture of both plant and animal life. Also the atmosphere, the 
divider of the waters conserves both heat, light and sound, so as 
to make the earth habitable by such creatures as now live upon 
it. Without the atmosphere the earth would at once be empty 
and desolate, as it was when it first came from the hand of God. 
Therefore the work of the second day precedes the creations of 
the succeeding days and prepares the way for them. And the 
time table of the creative week is once more found to be in 
harmony with the laws of nature that govern all things. And 
the laws now holding have evidently been in force without 
change since the beginning of material things. And the author 
of the record knew those laws when he dictated these words of 
history. 

3. The work of the third day must, in the nature of things, 
have preceded the creations of the fifth and sixth days, for the 
dry land is the natural home of most of the living creatures 
made on these two days, and also the dry land is the natural 
home of the many forms of vegetable life, made in the second 
place on the third day. And also it seems to be an established 
fact that all forms of animate life, both for "sea, earth and air," 
the works of the fifth and sixth days, are so constructed as to 
depend ultimately, for sustainance upon the vegetable world, 
Gen. I, 29-30, the creations of the third day. Therefore the crea- 
tions of the third day necessarily precede the creations of the 
fifth and sixth days. 

The argument for the precedence of the third days to the 
fourth is not so clear perhaps, but the following points may be 
given. The record affirms it, and that of itself is the highest 
possible authority. Nothing can supercede the inspiration of 



60 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

God. The separation of the fourth day from the first day was 
by design, though they both treat of the same office work among 
the creations. Yet there is a difference. The first is a universal 
provision. 

Radiation is for all worlds and all space. On the other 
hand, sun light, and star light, and moon light, the creations of 
the fourth day, are local provisions under this universal law and 
therefore are later creations. They are like the lamps and fires 
that warm and light our houses, in their relations to the broadei 
creation of the first day. 

Also the creation of vegetable Hfe that is placed before 
sun Hght and sun heat on which it now depends, may be ex- 
plained by an appeal to a phenomenon known to the geologist. 
Explorers that have visited the antarctic continent found parts 
of trees of large size, in the places they grew, and other remains 
of what might seem to be tropic vegetation. Similar discoveries 
have been made in the north frigid zone, along with deposits of 
coal. Indicating that at that time the climates of the earth were 
different from what they are now. The circumpolar regions 
enjoying something like a tropic climate. While on the other 
hand the coal measures of the tropics in their structure and 
fossil remains do not dilTer materially from those of the now 
frigid zones. The conditions of life were then the same in all 
parts of the world. Also the fossils of the older systems of 
rocks, as devonian, silurean and cambrian are represented as 
being practically the same in all zones, as now divided. Appar- . 
ently because of this sameness of climate and the fauna and 
flora in all lands and zones of latitude all of which argues that 
the heat that made the world habitable did not then come from 
the same source as now. The signs and seasons were different. 
The light and the heat had the character of universals, extending 
equally to all parts of the world. Now, tropical life in all parts 
of the world is essentially different from that of the temperate 
and frigid zones, then they were the same. This phenomena may 
be explained as follows : It is generally believed that 
the earth was at first molten, and beheved also that 
now it is still molten within, though that heat does not now 
effect our climates, yet there was a time when it did. And the 
circumpolar regions and the equatorial lands were equally near 
that fountain of perpetual heat. And the light of that first 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 61 

day of creation was sufficient for the vegetation that covered all 
lands. In the process of time, the earth by radiation would 
cease to be the fountain of heat for its living freight. Then in 
the fullness of time, without a break in the natural order of 
existing things, to show exactly where in geologic time the 
event occurred, the central world of our system of worlds was by 
creation made to be the fountain of light and heat to a system 
of worlds that revolved about it. And it began to rule over the 
days as the record says, and make the signs and the seasons, and 
number the years. Leaving us to infer, that before this, time 
was without these limitations of signs and seasons, days and 
years. But after this there was winter and summer, and the 
zones of heat were from the torrid to the frigid while the circum- 
polar regions lost their tropic vegetation. This evidence of a 
change in the plan of lighting and heating the world, in the 
midst of the days shows the possibility of the literal truthful- 
ness of the record that the third day with is vegetation, in its 
morning, did antedate the morning of the fourth day on which 
it afterward came to depend for its life. And the order of the 
succession of the days in the record are found to coincide with 
the order in the natural world as taught by the science of geology 
that seems to be well established in its testimony on the transi- 
tion from the light and heat of a former order of things to that 
of the fourth day. This transition indicates the time when the 
creation of sun light and sun heat occurred. 

4. That the light and heat of the first and fourth day com- 
bined preceded the creations of the fifth and sixth days would 
seem to be an absolute necessity in order to their existence at 
the present time. Though we cannot tell in geologic time, more 
closely than indicated above, when the sun, moon and stars were 
installed in office as rulers over the days and nights, for that 
office work was a divided honor. The proof of which is seen in 
the contrasted climates of the circumpolar zones, now in glaiers. 
And then by their tropic vegetation that is now in its 
fossiliferous state. At some future date the students of geology 
may be able to point out the exact place in geologic time when 
this event of transition occurred. (Sec W. TV Scott's (^col. p. 
368, p. 421). Aill we can affirm now is, that the sun as the 
fountain of light and heat for the world did actually precede the 
creations of the fifth and sixth days as they now exist in the 



62 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

world. And the order found in nature confirms the truth of the 
order found in revelation. 

5. The first creations of the fifth day, or department of 
creation antedates those of the sixth by a very extended period 
of geologic time. For near one-half of the fossihferous rocks 
were formed before any kind of mammalia appeared, or have 
as yet been discovered, the various orders of which make up 
the controlling forms of living creatures that characterise the 
creations of the sixth day. And thus the order of succession of 
these two days in geologic time is very strongly marked and 
abundantly confirmed the order given in the inspired account 
of these events. 

6. That the creations of the sixth day were the last in the 
order of successions of created things is clearly shown by what 
has been said under the head of the fifth day. The inspired order 
of the events corresponds with the order that is found to exist 
in the natural world, both as to the beginning and the ending 
of the sixth day or department of created things. For man and 
those creatures that came into being with him and now inhabit 
the world with him were the last in the series of created things. 
The inspired record affirms that the last of the sixth day, the 
creation of man, was later than the last of the fifth day, and 
also was the last of the sixth day, by the declaration that : 
''Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air and 
to every beast of the field." They were there to be named, and 
by the declaration that Adam was appointed their ruler, which 
are known to be true to nature. Man names, rules over, and ap- 
propriates to his own use all else that is found in the world. 
He proves that he is the highest type of all created things. He 
rules over and directs the destinies of the world. This authority 
that he exercises has never at any time been shared by any 
other, earth born creature. This testimony would seem to 
indicate that when all else was created then man, the ruler of 
the world, was made and installed in authority over it. 

7. The time now passing since the creation of man is 
believed to be the Sabbath of Divine Rest, that God "sanctified" 
which will also continue to the end of time. And if so, it serves 
to set forth the broad signification of the word "day" as used in 
the record, being equivalent to time indefinite. And viewed 
from the standpoint of the natural world that is passing before 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 63 

us, there is no evidence that there has been any creations since 
man appeared on the earth. God has rested, kept a Sabbath, 
as the record affirms. 

It is to be noted however, as bearing upon the truth of this 
record of creation, and of the whole book of revelation, that when 
God spoke to men, they asked : "What sign showest thou 
(Ex. 4, 8-9; Ps. 7, 7; Js. 7, 11; Mat. 12, 38) that we may see 
and believe? Presumably, that thou art God and the author 
of creation." The signs wrought to satisfy this inquiry have 
been miracles and prophecies. And while it is true that God 
"rests" from creation, yet by these he gives the evidence that 
he has not withdrawn from the earth. For they are the 
equivalents of, and the same class of works, as the creations of 
Genesis, and show that one being was the author of both, and 
that the voice that spoke was in each case the voice of God. 
And noted also, that those who deny the truth of creations, 
deny also the truth of miracles and prophecies. 

8. One marvel of this creative record is found in the 
division of the materials at hand into six parts, or days. An- 
other wonder appears in the fact that these six divisions or days 
of work, are so comprehensive as to embrace all things. And 
still another is seen in that the several days selected and num- 
bered, should be along the lines of these natural successions, 
which when studied thousands of years after are found to be so 
clearly marked in nature as to be discoverable. This division of 
the days is a proof that the author of the creative record knew 
all things. And this division of the days along with their com- 
prehensiveness shows that God's great week of work and day 
of rest was real, not mythical, as some affirm, not a panorama, 
or prophetic vision passing before the mind of the writer, as 
others affirm, but plain matter of fact history. Which statement 
is emphasised by the facts noted above, that the record implies 
that the creations of these days, or departments were all sepa- 
rate and distinct in their subject matter, the one from the other. 
Also again when an appeal is made to the testimony of science 
it is found that the works of each day are severally governed by 
a different series of laws, and also that they make one or more 
separate departments of natural science. Also it may be noted 
that the laws and forms of being of one day could not by any 
natural law now existing be evolved out of the laws and forms of 



64 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

being of another day. Hence the days of creation are separated 
by well defined boundary lines as every series of historic state- 
ments should be. 

9. Is the assumption that these creative days were in part 
cotemporaneous times and departments of work allowable in 
the interpretation of this scripture? Yes, if the scriptures and 
the creations combined do really demand it. Also it is fair to 
assume that the language describing an event or work is as 
broad and comprehensive as that event or work is found to be. 
Else we might rule almost any cause out of court. The word 
"day" in this creative record is evidently used in the sense of 
time indefinite for the first, second and third days are numbered 
and named before the recorder of our days and years Avas crea- 
ted. And when the remaining three days are considered in con- 
junction with the creations of those days, they, too, evidently 
demand times indefinite for the completion of the events enum- 
erated. It may be noted that the word day, is frequently used in 
scripture in the sense of time indefinite, as in Gen. 2. 4 : ''These 
are the generations of the heavens and the earth, when they 
were created, in the ''day," that the Lord made the earth, and 
the heavens." And Gen. 2, 17: 'Tor in the "day" that thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The proofs however that 
the days of creation were actually indefinite times are drawn al- 
most wholly from the creations enumerated as made on those 
days. 

10. ^^^e m.ay note also that on the first day, there was but 
two creative acts enumerated. The light and the darkness. On 
the second day but one. On the third day there were many : 
the seas and the dry land, and unnumbered forms or vegetable 
life. Each species of which is governed by a different meru& 
law. and constructed after a different chemical formula. 

On the fourth day there were as many separate creative acts 
as there were suns to give out Hght and heat. And they cannot 
be counted by the aid of the most highly finished scientific helps 
any more than by the naked eye. 

On the fifth day there were as many separate creative acts 
as there are species of animal life that have at any age of the 
world existed for the sea, and the air. 

On the sixth day, the creative acts were as many as the 
forms of life for the land. For each species of animal life has 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 63 

us, there is no evidence that there has been any creations since 
man appeared on the earth. God has rested, kept a Sabbath, 
as the record affirms. 

It is to be noted however, as bearing upon the truth of this 
record of creation, and of the whole book of revelation, that when 
God spoke to men, they asked : "What sign showest thou 
(Ex. 4, 8-9; Ps. 7, 7; Js. 7, 11; Mat. 12, 38) that we may see 
and believe? Presumably, that thou art God and the author 
of creation." The signs wrought to satisfy this inquiry have 
been miracles and prophecies. And while it is true that God 
"rests" from creation, yet by these he gives the evidence that 
he has not withdrawn from the earth. For they are the 
equivalents of, and the same class of works, as the creations of 
Genesis, and show that one being was the author of both, and 
that the voice that spoke was in each case the voice of God. 
And noted also, that those who deny the truth of creations, 
deny also the truth of miracles and prophecies. 

8. One marvel of this creative record is found in the 
division of the materials at hand into six parts, or days. An- 
other wonder appears in the fact that these six divisions or days 
of work, are so comprehensive as to embrace all things. And 
still another is seen in that the several days selected and num- 
bered, should be along the lines of these natural successions, 
which when studied thousands of years after are found to be so 
clearly marked in nature as to be discoverable. This division of 
the days is a proof that the author of the creative record knew 
all things. And this division of the days along with their com- 
prehensiveness shows that God's great week of work and day 
of rest was real, not mythical, as some affirm, not a panorama, 
or prophetic vision passing before the mind of the writer, as 
others affirm, but plain matter of fact history. Which statement 
is emphasised by the facts noted above, that the record implies 
that the creations of these days, or departments were all sepa- 
rate and distinct in their subject matter, the one from the other. 
Also again when an appeal is made to the testimony of science 
it is found that the works of each day are severally governed by 
a different series of laws, and also that they make one or more 
separate departments of natural science. Also it may be noted 
that the laws and forms of being of one day could not by any 
natural law now existing be evolved out of the laws and forms of 



64 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

being of another day. Hence the days of creation are separated 
by well defined boundary lines as every series of historic state- 
ments should be. 

9. Is the assumption that these creative days were in part 
cotemporaneous times and departments of work allowable in 
the interpretation of this scripture? Yes, if the scriptures and 
the creations combined do really demand it. Also it is fair to 
assume that the language describing an event or work is as 
broad and comprehensive as that event or work is found to be. 
Else we might rule almost any cause out of court. The word 
"day" in this creative record is evidently used in the sense of 
time indefinite for the first, second and third days are numbered 
and named before the recorder of our days and years was crea- 
ted. And when the remaining three days are considered in con- 
junction with the creations of those days, they, too, evidently 
demand times indefinite for the completion of the events enum- 
erated. It may be noted that the word day, is frequently used in 
scripture in the sense of time indefinite, as in Gen. 2, 4 : "These 
are the generations of the heavens and the earth, when they 
were created, in the "day," that the Lord made the earth, and 
the heavens." And Gen. 2, 17: "For in the "day" that thou 
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." The proofs however that 
the days of creation were actually indefinite times are drawn al- 
most wholly from the creations enumerated as made on those 
days. 

10. We may note also that on the first day, there was but 
two creative acts enumerated. The Hght and the darkness. On 
the second day but one. On the third day there were many : 
the seas and the dry land, and unnumbered forms or vegetable 
life. Each species of which is governed by a different merus 
law, and constructed after a different chemical formula. 

On the fourth day there were as many separate creative acts 
as there were suns to give out light and heat. And they cannot 
be counted by the aid of the most highly finished scientific helps 
any more than by the naked eye. 

On the fifth day there were as many separate creative acts 
as there are species of animal life that have at any age of the 
world existed for the sea, and the air. 

On the sixth day, the creative acts were as many as the 
forms of life for the land. For each species of animal life has 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 65 

been constructed, like the species of plant life, after a different 
merus law. 

And each several creation in all of the days a separate work 
like any one of the miracles of the Bible, that demanded the 
presence and power of one who was able to work above the laws 
of the natural world, and for each creation ordain the new laws 
by which it must forever afterward exist. 



66 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THIS HISTORY OF CREATION EMBRACES ALL 
THINGS — ''Thus the heavens and the earth were finished and 
all the host of them." Gen. 2, i. 

The first chapter of Genesis is first of all an historic record. 
Its subject matter declares it is history. (Keil and Delitzsch 
Com. Old Tes.. page 45). History is the record of actual events. 
The term is applied to the events that have occurred in the life 
of a state, or a nation, or the world, or of an individual, when it 
is called a biography. If of the church it is called Ecclesiastical 
History. When then the record treats of the things in the world 
around us it is called Natural History. When it treats of one 
part as Geolog}^, or Botany, it is denominated the history of 
that department of knowledge. So in like manner this record of 
events in the first chapter of Genesis is history. And not only 
so, but it is the most comiprehensive bit of natural history found 
in the world, in that it records in brief space an account of the 
origin of all things. History is a matter that stands in contrast 
with myth and fiction, both of which are products of the im- 
agination, while history is a record of events that are true. 
Then between these two myth and fiction, there is a difference. 
Fiction is the modern dream of some author, while a myth is 
usually accepted as the product of prehistoric peoples. While 
the myth also embraces chiefly, the religious speculations of 
these ancient peoples, fiction treats of every imaginary subject. 
There are those who call the record of creation found in the 
first chapter of Genesis a myth. In the previous chapters of this 
work, we have endeavored to put the things that have existed, 
and do now exist, along side of that record, and thus show how 
fully it comprehended them all, and thus show that its claim was 
a true one. It is an account of what God has made. It is a true 
historic record. 

That a record may be true history, it must be circumstantial. 
The events and works must be itemised. The record must be in 
chronological order. The record must be as comprehensive as 
the field it would set before the reader, nothing should be left 
out. All the affairs of the state or nation should be brought in 
review. Such ideal history is not easily written, and perhaps 
bv human authors cannot be attained. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 67 

There are those who hold that the first chapter of Genesis 
is a prophetic vision of the past. A prophecy and the first 
chapter of Genesis or a history are aUke in this respect, viz : 
The author of the prophecy must know the future events that he 
predicts. The author of a history must know what has tran- 
spired. In other respects the work of the historian and the 
prophet differ, the one is looking forward, the other is looking 
backward. In one respect the field of prophecy, and the first 
chapter of Genesis are alike. The range of both are beyond the 
vision of man as to authorship he could not produce either of 
them. For the' evidence is abundant and indisputable that man 
came onto the stage of being among the very last of existing 
things, therefore he could not have told of the "beginning'' 
because his age on the earth was great. Dififerent races and 
peoples have tried it, but their writings show the futility of such 
efiforts. Mankind have always been trying to look into the 
future, and see what events of good or evil fortune were awaiting 
them. But with all the light and knowledge we possess we are 
not able to tell what a day may bring forth. Having made these 
preparatory remarks, let us proceed to show how fully the record 
of creation answers the conditions of a true history of the origin 
of all things. 

The account of creation is a scientific record, which treats 
of the beginnings of the things on which the several natural 
sciences known tO' man are founded. The heavens and the 
earth, the sun, moon and stars, furnish the materials for the 
science of Astronomy. The earth in its continents furnish the 
materials for the sciences of Geology and Geography. The 
reference to light speaks of the material foundation of the sci- 
ences of Optics and Radiation. The division of the waters above 
the earth from those upon it furnish the basis on which the 
science of Meteorology is founded. The creation of plants, trees 
and herbs give the materials on which the science of Botany 
rests. The creation of sun light, and starlight, speaks of the 
materials on which the science of Solar Physics is founded. The 
creation of animate life, for sea, earth and air enumerates the 
materials on which the science of Zoology, in all its branches, 
is built. The creation of man in the image of God, furnishes the 
materials on which the sciences of Moral and Mental Philosophy 
are built, and part of the foundation and material for a system 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 



of Theology. And this proposition is also true, viz : The con- 
verse of the above that every branch of the natural science, or 
even part of a branch of natural science is the exposition of a 
creation, of one or other of these days. Every seed, or leaf, or 
pistol, every atom of matter, every ray of heat or Hgfht, every 
germ of animate life, every mote of star dust, every grade of 
intellect, except the infinite, are all creations, and these give the 
elements on which all scientific research are founded. 

The reference to these things under the head of *'the be- 
ginning," ''the earth," and the ''six days," are so taken as to 
comprehend the whole of material things. He that made 
"heaven and earth" made all worlds. He that made the light 
made all radiations of which hght with its laws is an essential 
part. He that made one firmament made all firmaments. He 
that divided the dry land from the waters on the earth has 
arranged the elements and materials on all worlds to enhance 
their utiHty. He that planted one world with vegetation, has 
planted all worlds where similarly used. He that made one 
world a Hght bearer, kindled the stars also. He that filled one 
world with living creatures, has utilized all worlds, so far as 
it has been as yet accomplished. He that made man, made 
angels also. The being, whose image man bears, is the author 
of all these material things that exist, for man too in like manner 
is a creator, mathematician, author. Now these are the things 
that prove the first chapter of Genesis a true history. The 
several parts are so selected, as to embrace the whole of each 
great department of creation. It is true history because the 
several creations, works, and events are taken up in their true 
and chronological order, the truth of which can be seen and 
proved. It is true history because the things made are in every 
case before us, and we can compare the goods with the inspired 
inventory of them, and see that every thing in the count is 
correct, as set forth. It is true history because no living creature 
but the infinite God could call into being in their orderly array 
the things enumerated, set up the orrery of the heavens, cause 
the light to fill all space, and ordain the innumerable laws of 
nature. It is true history because the author was both compe- 
tent and honest. It is true history because the auther intended 
to give us an account of what he himself had made. The in- 
ternal evidence of this is abundant. There is no evidence of 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 69 

subterfuge or deceit. It is a noteable fact that the first prin- 
ciples of every science is an inventory of the materials and laws 
upon which it is built. A work on astronomy turns the eye of 
the student to the stars of heaven, and enumerates the laws of 
their motions. A work on chemistry enumerates the elements 
of matter composing the worlds, and their laws. A work on 
optics tells the student tha a ray of light is the foundation of 
its science, and it proceeds to enumerate all the laws that govern 
that ray. A work on meteorology discusses the phenomena and 
laws of the atmosphere. A work on geology explains that it is 
about to speak of the rock formations of the world. A work 
on minerology explains that it will treat of minerals, their com- 
position and structure. A work on botany begins its lessons 
by describing plant life. A treatise on solar physics sets forth the 
light and heat giving powers of the sun. A work on zoology 
first of all speaks of the animate world concerning which it is 
to treat. The sciences of moral and mental philosophy discuss 
the powers of the human mind and soul, and point out the re- 
lations of these powers to the attributes of God, their author. 

Now when a man is speaking of these first principles of any 
science he is talking science as surely as when illustrating and 
enlarging upon these "first principles" in the later chapters of 
his work. And to speak faultlessly, about these first principles 
of any science, shows that the man is thoroughly accomplished 
in that department of research. 

And now it is at this point that we perceive the Bible to be 
a masterly scientific book, and its author to be thoroughly posted, 
and all that he says to be reliable, when speaking upon things 
in the natural world. Evidently science will never make such 
strides of progress that it will get beyond the letter of the book 
of books. Because the first principles in the philosophy of everv 
science are summed up in those several creations in the first 
of Genesis. And each several science can neither add to, or 
take from, as to its foundation, the things there enumerated. 
Each brief statement embraces the elements that make the 
foundation of one or more of the sciences. We may safely as- 
sert that the first chapter of Genesis is the most wonderful 
scientific record in the world, for in one brief chapter there is a 
definite summary statement of the materials, and consequently 
of the laws and principles that underlie all of the severrd and in- 



70 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

dividual sciences, in the material, and intellectual, and spiritual 
universe of the infinite and eternal God. Men will search all the 
volumes of human literature in vain, for as comprehensive and 
faultless Fummary statement of the basic principles of all the 
sciences, as is contained in this first chapter of Genesis. And 
the most wonderful thing about it is the fact that while all com- 
prehensive it is faultless. There is not one factor out of place, 
or statement made, that does not have illimitable proof of its 
truth, and of the appropriateness of the place where found. 
These things show us that the author of that record knew all 
things. And to give us an itemised, chronological, compre- 
hensive, reliable statement, of the facts in the case is the highest 
type of history in the world. 

Each brief statement of a creation embraces the elements 
that make the foundation of one or more of the sciences. And 
since the creative record makes no error, by naming too many, 
or too few creations, in enumerating the things and elements that 
lay at the foundation of these several sciences, it is not proper, 
nor speaking truth, to say : "The Bible is unscientific," or to 
insinuate that the declarations of the scriptures, and the de- 
ductions of established modern science are in antagonism. For 
in every case the superstructure of each modern science is built 
upon a creation that God specifies and limits, and bounds, and 
claims as his own work. While nc science can enlarge that 
foundation, or leave out any part of it, while there are no 
materials found, on which to build an extra science, or mater- 
ials found that are evidently beyond that creative record, there- 
fore the Bible is in the highest sense scientific. And the record 
that communicates such information to us is the most astonish- 
ing piece of historic composition found in the world. And is 
in the highest sense a suitable introduction of a revelation from 
the infinitely wise God to the world of mankind. 

The Bible treats of science as if it was its supreme master, 
and though written in what men are pleased to call an un- 
scientific age, it made no mistakes, it is a competent master. 

The Word of God begins with a treatise on natural theology 
that surpasses all the wisdom of men. The selection of the ma- 
terials compel men to look from nature up to nature's God, its 
author, because it enumerates necessary creations. And the 
sciences that are built upon these several necessary creations 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 71 

are taught, as part of the curriculum, in all of our colleges and 
schools of learning. The things are real not imaginary. The 
sciences that are built on them true, their formulas and laws 
reliable, recognised by the learned world as true, and that, which 
is true science, is also true history, so far as the record of the 
facts is concerned. 

The thing that men mean when they say : ''The Bible is not 
a scientific book," is that though it may speak of natural ob- 
jects treated of in scientific books, yet in such a loose and general 
way, that the statements cannot be subjected to scientific for- 
mulas, and laws, and should not therefore be held as of equal 
authority, or correctness, as compared with the deductions of 
science, as known in this advanced age of the world. The Bible 
however, has abundant evidence within itself, that it was given 
for all ages of the world, even for ages, yet to come, far more 
intelligent than this. It would be a dishonor to God, its author, 
alknowing, and alwise, and infinitely good, to write or dictate 
a sentence for men, that was only half thought out, that was 
erroneous through negligence, or untrue. It is impossible for 
God to be ignorant or negligent, or to lie. Therefore every 
sentence in the Bible is frought with meaning that must be 
true. And the history of God's work of creation, put in the 
plainest and simplest affirmative language possible is true his- 
tory, and true science. In the race, and in the arena, of life 
among men, the Bible needs no handicap or favors as if it was 
a weak one, but at every point we are its scholars, not its 
masters, as some suppose. The world will never become so in- 
telligent, that it can write its sciences, correctly without going to 
the Bible for the first principles of that same science, the crea- 
tions of God, who also ordained the laws, by which that same 
creation stands. The time has come when we should defend 
the Word of God as one who fights for an invincible leader, 
without fear, and without asking or granting favors, for as he 
that made the eye must be able to see, so he that made the 
materials, on which all sciences rest, must be able to speak with 
intelligence and authority, when he tells us about the material 
universe he has brought into being. For his authorship of 
Genesis cannot be denied. 

The record of creation is true history, for several very es- 
sential parts of it are undisputed in the historic truthfulness of 



72 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

its affirmations. The author of the record said : ''Let us make 
man in our image, and after our likeness; and let them have 
dominion over the fish of the sea; and over the fowl of the air; 
and over the cattle; and over all the earth; and over every 
creeping thing, that creepeth upon the earth." Gen. i, 26. On 
two counts this part of the creative record is very noteable in 
its historic bearings. The consensus of all nations and races, 
and social grades of men has been that man was made in the 
image of God — His ideal divinities bore the human likeness. 
Jupiter, Juno, Brashma, Budha and Baal, and their idols were 
generally travesties on the human form. When considered 
more closely by the most intelligent of the race the same con- 
viction is apparent. If we put an inventory of the powers of 
the human mind alongside of the attributes of God as set forth 
in His Word, and shown in the works of nature, the likeness is 
perfect, except that man's mind is marred by sin. Every attri- 
bute of God has its counterpart in the human intellect. It is 
a true historic statement that man was made in the image and 
Hkener-s of God, the author and builder of all material things, 
together with the devising and ordaining the laws of nature, 
by which these material things are governed. For man too, is 
an architect, a builder, and a law giver. Gifted in all these re- 
spects by a principle higher than that of instinct, that directs 
similar gifts in the lower orders of the animate world. Second, 
the declaration : "Let them have dominion over all the earth" 
is a true historic statem.ent, or first a prophecy and now a 
fact of history. And while there is much in nature, that he has 
not yet discovered, much less subjected to his will, yet the 
prophecy has been fulfilled to such an extent, that its truth has 
gone into the history of the race. 

Third, it is an established fact that the food supply of the 
animate world is found in the vegetable world. Thus the crea- 
tive record is complete to the finish. Tr^e history and true 
science. All comprehensive. A literary monument to the glory 
of God. A synopsis of scientific truth for the education of man- 
kind, that will not be exhausted, or overdrawn to the end of 
time, because it embraces the foundations of all material and 
spiritual knowledge. 

Natural theology rests upon a foundation as broad as the 
universe and on a basis as firmly laid as the laws of the universe. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 73 

THE RECORD OF CREATION IN ITS RELATIONS TO 
OTHER SCRIPTURES. 



CHAPTER XV. 

This record of creation having proved itself to be true 
history, as we have shown it, at the same time, proves itself to 
be Divinely inspired, because it claims to be inspired of God 
and surrounds itself with the indisputable proofs of truthfulness. 
All the matter and laws of the material universe bear testimony 
to its inerrency. 

2; The claim of Divine inspiration is well taken because of 
the impossibility of finding any other competent author. For 
no man or school of men, whose biographies have been left us, 
could have composed it. They would have wrought human 
speculations into it, while now it is entirely free from all such 
errors. The mythologies of the ancient nations show us how 
men of other times did treat the question of the origin of things. 
Their writings show that they believed in evolutions instead of 
creations. 

3. Also the claim of Divine inspiration is a true claim, 
because it is the only cosmogony in existence that is true to 
nature, and alcomprehensive. All others are mythical products 
frought with errors. 

4. Also the writer does not claim to be its author, only 
its amanuensis, and, he is evidently sincere, and believes he is 
writing the words of God. And the exalted character of the 
composition is an evidence that the belief is justly held. 

5. The evolution of human intelligence compels the belief 
in the Divine authorship of the record of creation. For the 
world of mankind has increased in intelligence along almost 
every line of human thought for perhaps six thousand years, and 
yet the philosophy and natural history of that record of creation, 
has been in the advance of the most learned men of every age of 
the world. And hence could not have been the product of human 
authorship. The laws of human thought and progress forbids it. 
Aside from the influence of revelation the united intelligence of 
this most learned age of the world could not produce such a 
record. Our higher critics, and many learned professors and 



74 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

students of the Word are even now trying to prove the creative 
record a myth. Therefore we are compelled to believe in the 
Divine inspiration of the record of creation. And if God dictated 
Genesis, He dictated also the whole Bible. For the rest of the 
Bible is so joined to this record of creation that the doctrine of 
creation becomes one of the important proofs of the Divine 
authorship of the whole book. The record of creation is accepted 
in every part of the Bible as true. And is wrought into its 
language and is incorporated in its thought, and is illustrated by 
its miracles and by its co-ordinate lines of thought in its pro- 
phecies, teaching that all scripture was given by the inspiration 
of God. Therefore we are safe in saying that as this record of 
creation was an inspiration of God, so was all other scriptures 
joined to this, also inspirations of God. And holy men of God 
wrote them as they were moved to do by the Holy Ghost. 

There are those who seem to think the record of creation 
a myth Hke the mythologies of India, or Egypt, or Greece, and 
if so, other scriptures have no higher authority. But like other 
myths were an evolution of human thought. And therefore this 
intelligent age was justified in rewriting and improving the 
history and doctrines of the Bible, by the labors of the higher 
critics. 

But the first chapter of Genesis being true history and true 
scientifically the foundation stone of evolution and of higher 
criticism is taken away from them. And though we may be 
justified in rewriting and improving a myth, we are not justified 
in changing the Word of God though its teachings do not please 
us or suit our fancy. The Bible is God's covenant with man, and 
as it is esteemed a crime to change a legal paper or remove an 
old land mark, so it is a crime to change the wording or thought 
of the Bible, God's covenant with mankind. 

As the record of creation appeals to the testimony of nature 
for evidence of its truthfulness, so the word of God in all of its 
subsequent parts continually appeals to visible phenomena as 
evidence of its truthfulness. Such as the working of miracles, 
the utterance of prophecies, the records of nations, the old and 
established civil authorities, the testimony of nature, the build- 
ing of cities, the rise and fall of empires, the existence of the 
surrounding nations, the conquest of nations, the effects of 
captivity, the protecting providences of God, the records of the 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 75 

Bible are filled with the biographies of its leading personages. 
There is the greatest possible publicity of all its events. Its wit- 
nesses are named, and their testimony recorded. The events 
of Bible history were not done in a corner, but the leading people 
and nations of the world were compelled to see them, and to be 
participaters in some of its parts, as they were transpiring. The 
light of the world was made to shine upon the Sacred Story of 
the Word of God. And that the ¥/ord of God might never cease 
to be a living subject of human thought by sinking into the grave 
of a dead past. The Hebrew people, around whom the Bible his- 
tory was grouped, have been a live people in the world and their 
language a living language for no less than five thousand years. 
And the Hebrew people have been an active and vigorous factor 
in the affairs of the world's history from the days of Abraham 
until now, while everywhere this studied pubhcity is joined with 
the thought of Divine inspration. 

When now we add to this evidence of Divine authorship the 
indisputable proofs that gather themselves about the record of 
creation affirming that God was its author, the testimony is with- 
out a break showing that God only could compose such a system 
of theology both natural and revealed. That God only could tell 
of the beginning of things, that God only could confirm His 
Word by miracles, and prophecies, that God only could give to 
men such power as was bestowed upon the apostles and prophets, 
and that God only, the creator of all things, could send His 
Son into the world to atone for the sins of a lost race. 



76 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD AS REVEALED IN 
NATURE AND REVELATION. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



There is now one more point to be discussed : The relation 
of this record of creation to the being, and attributes of God. 
We will assume that it is an open question. And assume that 
the light of nature does not give to mankind, at least, a saving 
knowledge of God. It is believed however, by many of the most 
learned of men that they do. The plan of our work does not 
limit us to this Hne of evidence however, but the appeal is to 
the whole Word of God. The author of creation is also the 
author of inspiration. And natural theology is only one part of 
a system of theology that is as comprehensive as nature and 
revelation combined and which cannot properly be divided with- 
out weakening both parts. It was not designed to separate the 
arguments of inspiration. For all scripture is given by inspira- 
tion of God and is profitable for doctrine and instruction. The 
towering strength and greatness of scripture is seen in its mas- 
siveness. There is nothing to be gained by emasculating a doc- 
trine of the Word of God by making it stand on part of its evi- 
dences. It was doubtless designed of God that His science, like 
all the other branches of natural science should be made as 
strong as possible, and for a full defense should have all the 
evidences of the Word of God gathered about it. The record 
of creation sets us an example. It embraces the whole of exis- 
ting things, and we should not in a case like this take a part of 
the proofs of a great doctrine, ignoring the rest. 

If God imprinted the number and character of his attributes 
on his works so that by the help of nature alone we may learn 
the number and character of them it is also evident that he did 
not design that we should trust our knowledge of him to that 
source of information alone, but that we should increase our 
knowledge from every source within our reach. Therefore he 
gave us an inspiration from above. The present chapter is 
designed to enumerate the attributes of God as he is known to 
us by the light of revelation. The former chapters speak of the 
wisdom, power, goodness and designs of God as seen in nature 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 77 

and revelation. But, that we may get the proofs of the adorable 
attributes of the Divine Being, we appeal more directly to the 
Word of God as the only infallible source of information. 

1. Personality of God. The scriptures afifirm that man was 
made in the image of God, and man's personality is proof that 
God also is a person. And, as the great architect and builder of 
all things, his mind and will, the elements of personality, was 
before all things, he is the source of all personality. 

2. Closely allied with personality is the idea of spirituality. 
The elements of personality are spiritual and intellectual; know- 
ledge and will are immaterial; therefore the author of the uni- 
verse must himself be a spirit because of the plan, purpose, and 
design everywhere manifested in it. And the scriptures affirm 
that God is a spirit. The spirituality of God does not seem to be 
very clear to the mind of man when in a state of nature. His 
divinities are all material images and objects of perception. 
Until the coming of Christ the world continually lapsed into 
idolatry, and since then the tendency has manifested itself in 
the adoration of pictures, crosses, and ikons. The knowledge 
of God as a spirit is dependent upon the Word of God. The 
devils, that men worship, are hardly types of God. 

3. Unity. The singleness of the designs in nature 
argue the unity of its author. There is but one series of natural 
laws. The races of men have believed that among the gods 
one was greater than the others. But when we come to the 
scriptures, the Word of God tells us there is but one God. There 
is not another. One chief sin of the world has been a belief in 
a pluraUty of gods. There is doubtless a reason for this in the 
nature of things. This unity is not so concentrated as to com- 
pel men to see but one supreme ruler. To communicate this 
knowledge demanded a revelation and a long continued course 
of culture. On this point our theology would be very defective 
without a revelation attested by many infallible proofs. Our 
natural theology needs the help of Divine inspiration. 

4. Infinity. As the author of nature, God must be every- 
where present at the same time. For material existence proves 
the necessity of spiritual presence, on which it depends, and the 
expanse is without a limit. In this infinity of space the Infinite 
God carries forward an infinite series of Dvine providences. The 
scriptural use of this attribute is brought out in the Word of 



78 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

God, by the requirements of religious worship. Men everywhere 
in all lands, are exhorted to call upon God, and are taught that 
God is able to hear and answer their prayers; and declares that 
God is everywhere present beholding the evil and the good. 
He sends his rain upon the just and upon the unjust; he cares 
for the sparrow as well as the worlds; even the hairs of our 
heads are all numbered. 

5. Omniscience. As related to the attribute of infinity, 
we have the attribute of omniscience. That God may rule the 
universe he must know all the possible relations of all the pos- 
sible events of both the material and spiritual w^orld. It cannot 
be possible to deceive God at any time, or that he be mistaken 
in any of his conclusions, or defeated in any of his plans. God 
does not acquire knowledge. He knows the end of things from 
their beginning. By his omniscience God is a true prophet, and 
the prophecies of scripture are a proof of the truth of this at- 
tribute. 

The question may be raised : Does the unaided mind of 
man discover this attribute of God? We think not, hence the 
need of a revelation from God in order that we may write this 
point of a natural theology. 

6. Omnipresence is joined with infinity of being, and the 
argument in its defense is in part the same. For it must be 
allowed that God is w^here he is at work, and it is a necessary 
truth that he is each moment carrying on his affairs in every part 
of the infinite universe. The position of the psalmist is true, that 
he could not flee from God's presence by height or depth, or 
life or death, or into any hiding place. And the creative record 
shows that the attribute has not been changed by the flight of 
ages ; the countless ages of the world's life. 

7. Omnipotence is that attribute of the Divine will to which 
no limit of power can be assigned. Whatever he mils comes to 
pass immediately. The doctrine is illustrated in scripture by the 
working of miracles, in which the specificaton is made in many 
of the events recorded, that the sick were healed immediately. 

By abstract reasoning mankind might come to the belief, 
that the one true God had all power in heaven, and on earth, 
but for clear connection he needs illustrations. These were, by 
the wisdom of God furnished, by the record of creation, and by 
the performing of many miracles in a vast variety of forms, 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 79 

wrought under such circumstances, and on such materials as 
were adapted to bring- conviction to every inquiring mind, 
and were in every case illustrations of Divine power. These 
miracles were scattered through almost every department of 
activity and work, demanding the display of Divine power in 
order to its accomplishment. As the gift of children, the raising 
of the dead, the healing of incurable diseases, the creation of 
food stuff, bread, meat, manna, water, oil, meal, in some cases 
in quantities sufficient for a nation, and at stated hours for a 
series of years. Years of plenty and of famine involving the 
greatest nations of the world. 

By all these God was pleased and saw it to be needful to 
illustrate his Word so that by the exercise of a reasonable faith 
we may be able to prove and establish a system of theology con- 
taining this doctrine. Mankind might by reason alone, under 
the most favorable circumstances find out this attribute of God, 
but that the quest may be truly successful and universal these 
many illustrations of Divine power were necessary. That this 
help was really needed may appear in that God was willing to 
give, line upon line and precept upon precept, and continue the 
lessons through many centuries and to involve the whole world 
in their grasp and now continues to embrace the whole world 
of mankind. 

And thus it is by these inspired helps we are able to put on 
a sure basis a science founded on the relation of God to nature 
and not have it overdrawn. This is a co-ordinate of omnisci- 
ence : God sees everything and therefore knows everything. 
And wisdom implies the added power of choosing the best pos- 
sible ends and means of accomplishing all things through proper 
means. By this wisdom God does all things and makes no 
mistakes. Supreme wisdom is supreme reason. We say infinite 
in wisdom, because there is no problem in the solution of which 
the Divine counsels need ever be changed in all the complicated 
affairs of the universe. And now revelation locates this wisdom 
in a person and tells us where he resides and defines liis as- 
sociated attributes. 

9. Holiness. As an attribute of God signifies that the 
Divine mind in all of its acts is eternally and perfectly in har- 
mony with righteousness. This righteousness he has wrought 
into the framework and providences of the world and made it 



80 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

a part of the human soul to the extent that the mind in its normal 
state cannot become so darkened as to lose the knowledge of 
right and wrong. But for practical purposes the knowledge does 
not seem to have saving power from the fact that the divinities 
of the heathen world have been depraved ideals. The gods of 
the Greeks and the Romans were sensualists, and the divinities 
of the nations living in paganism are not clean. A system of 
theology written by the Hght of nature alone will be a defective 
system. A man must be born from above before he can even 
know the new life that is in Christ, Jesus. And though twenty 
centuries have come the unconverted nations are as far from 
righteousness as were the ancients. Holiness has not grown up 
in the world away from Divine guidance. Hence we may note 
again that in order to frame a complete system of natural the- 
ology, we must not only have a revelation but also like Nicko- 
demus must be born again before we can even believe the tenets 
of such a theory. 

The scriptures seem to teach that we know enough by the 
light of nature to be lost but not enough to regain Eden ; hence 
again the need of a revelation to frame a true theology or ac- 
quire a right belief. Seemingly the same is true in regard to our 
knowledge of the various departments of natural science. That 
our works on natural science may be true we need the help of 
God and of a revelation as shown in the preface of this work. 
For guided by their own counsels scientists have evidently fallen 
into some very serious errors, even in modern times, which the 
Word of God corrects. Which thought shows again that to 
frame correctly a work on natural theology, we need a revelation 
from God. 

lo. Goodness, love and benevolence are synonymous terms 
for this goodness. The idea intended to be set forth by the term 
is that God delights to communicate the highest good to his 
creatures. Benevolence is wishing the well being of his crea- 
tures. Love is a diposition to do them good. Under this head 
we may note that the supreme goodness of God is not known by 
those who do not have the Word of God. We learn this at- 
tribute by the teachings and the works of the Son of God, and 
by the influence of the Holy Ghost, as we are taught in John 3, 
16. Which point shows again that a natural theology, to be true. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 81 

must be illumined by inspiration, and to be built on a sure foun- 
dation, must be on the Word of God and not on reason alone. 

11. Love and Benevolence. The love and benevolence of 
God are learned by revelation from above. And though revealed in 
the beginning in the promise to our parents in Eden, they were 
not fully comprehended until Christ came and finished the work 
of redemption. Even the apostles were slow to believe the 
Divine love, which like all the other attributes of God, are in- 
finite, and hence the need of a revelation of them that the 
world may come to know them. And even now it is by the 
Spirit of God moving upon us that we came to know God. 

12. Truth. The Divine attributes supplement each other. 
Each participates in the Divine character, and is infinite. Truth 
is an attribute that seeks after and defends that which is right. 

Now it is a notable fact that the minds of all races of men 
possess this attribute of truth. They show that they know the 
difference between truth and falsehood, and they accredit a like 
attribute to their divinities. But the fact is equally notable that 
they have failed in every instance when their theologies have 
been written out to then give their Deites a character that was 
clean and perfect in truth. The gods of the heathen world are 
all corrupt. Their attribute one of the human standard of truth 
and righteousness, while some of their divinities are skilled in 
duplicity. And men in a state of nature have not succeeded in 
leaving on record a system of theology that gave a true idea of 
the attributes of the one true God. And we must conclude there- 
fore that in order to the production of such a system of the- 
ology it was necessary that God reveal his real character and 
attributes to men in the very plainest way possible. 

And when God made such a revelation it was essential to the 
progress of knowledge that it be done. 

The strongest point showing the need of a revelation in 
order to the successful production of a sound system of theology 
is the existence of evil in the world. How can the problem of 
good be reconciled with the existence of the evil that exists and 
the Supreme Being be righteousness? That problem is solved 
only by a revelation and the atonement. By this light alone we 
learn of all the adorable attributes of God. 



82 NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 

THE RELATION OF THE RECORD OF CREATION TO 
OUR SCHOOLS OF LEARNING. 



CHAPTER XVL 



All true progress is through a sound philosophy 

A system of philosophy is a summary statement of the prin- 
ciples of a branch of science, art, mechanics, or history. Each 
department of knowledge has its own philosophy. 

An education is a course of training in some branch of 
philosophy, or is an acquisition of the precepts and principles of 
some department of art, or field of science. This training to be 
valuable must not be speculative but practical. At this point 
we may note there are those who seem to think that true philo- 
sophy may be advanced by theories and speculations. They 
spend time working on hypothetical problems. Real progress 
has however been by induction, by searching along the border 
land for things that are new and then enlarging the field of 
vision. 

Errors in scientific speculations have been a hindrance to 
the true progress of scientific investigations in astronomy, in 
chemistry, in geology, in theology, in sociology, in raciology, 
in philosophy. Errors in these fields of study delayed the prog- 
ress of knowledge for many centuries in all the world, and hold 
half of the human family in the bonds of ignorance today. The 
world is filled with the wrecks of false philosophies, or is even 
now going to the bad because of some unsound theory of philo- 
sophy, perhaps of government, or of science, or of religion. 

Errors in one department may be a hindrance to progress 
in another, as errors in scientific speculations have been a hind- 
ance to a proper understanding of the Word of God, in its ac- 
count of the origin of things, in its doctrine of inspiration, in 
its records of history, in the truth of its declarations on scientific 
questions. And on the other hand these speculations may be 
the defenders of rationalism, materialism and heathenism. 

In order therefore to a profitable use of our time and the 
speedy acquisition of knowledge we need sound principles of 
philosophy to start with, then we do not have to unlearn any- 
thing learned amiss, but every step made is one of real progress. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY AND GENESIS. 83 

Now just at this point the record of creation gives to the 
world the true starting point for the acquisition of knowledge, 
and also the true principles of each department of science. The 
record of creation is so worded as to embrace all things, and 
gives the rational and necessary starting point of each; and also 
saves the labor of a thorough classification, one of the most 
difficult of all the steps in the acquisition of knowledge. This 
record of creation helps us until as growing children we are able 
to help ourselves. 

The record of creation gives the most comprehensive cur- 
riculum of study found in the world. It actually embraces all 
things, and is practically inexhaustible. 

It is a notable fact that those institutions of learning give 
the highest satisfaction that come the nearest to this inspired 
summary of knowledge. Also those governments are the 
strongest that accept their principles of moral and mental philo- 
sophy, their theology, and form of government from the records 
of inspiration. 

Western civilization has been stronger than eastern civiliza- 
tion, but as eastern nations accept the civilization of the west 
they become stronger. 

As the colleges of Europe and America are extended to 
other parts of the world all races of mankind become intelligent. 
And it is a notable fact though not in every case so designed, 
the course of study in our colleges largely conforms to the re- 
quirements of the record and order of creation. 

The superiority of Christian civilization over all other 
forms that exist in the world is dependent upon the correctness 
of its principles of philosophy as found in all departments of 
science, all forms of machinery, all principles of government, 
and its systems of theology and morals. 

The record of creation is the foundation of all things. It 
marks the beginning of time and material things. 



THIS BOOK FOR SALE BY THE AUTHOR, 

At ITHACA, MICHIGAN, R. F. D. 4. 



Sent to any part of the United States on the receipt of 
Fifty Cents. 

All Orders promptly attended to. 
Send money by Post Office Order. 



RKV. J. E. LONQ. 



A LITTLE BOOK THAT SHOULD 

BE liN EVERY HOUSE WHERE 

THE WORD OF GOD IS FOUND. 



EVERY QUESTION ANSWERED. 



LEMy'09 




^"~ '■/ "-'"'' " nu:2l. 



NATURAL THEOLOGY 



AND 



GENESIS. 



Rev. J. E. Long. 



ITHACA, MICH. 
1905. 



